


So It Goes: Asides

by TGP



Series: So It's Going [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse, Alcohol, BAMF Waffle House Waitress, Body Horror, Brain Damage, Cannibalism hints, Conflict Resolution, Dave's complicated feelings about Bro, Death, Drinking, Emotional release, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Indecent Paleness, Memory Alteration, Nightmares, Parties, Rose's Utter Chill, Seizure, abuse recovery, fan trolls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-08 20:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 126
Words: 45,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6871618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TGP/pseuds/TGP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenes from So It Goes from other character's POVs or just random stuff. Written from prompts on Tumblr and updated when I've got the hankering for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**ANON: THE CONFRONTATION & EXPLANATIONS SCENE FROM JOHN'S POV JUST SO I CAN GET SNIPPETS OF THE OTHER TIMELINES HECK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

\---

“But it didn’t work that way!”

John has _tried_ that, tried _so hard!_ He tried _everything_. He looked at all the possibilities, ran every idea through Terezi and then Rose and then- Well it didn’t matter after that because it _never worked._

“Did you ask anyone to help you figure out a better solution?” Dad asks because of course he does, Dad’s always tried thinking around him but this time John’s the one who’s got the answers, even if they are the shittiest answers ever! Ugh.

“The first time. Terezi helped me. She had me go change specific events and then everything was different.”

“Was it better than the first timeline?”

Well, yeah. At first. At least until the trolls were crying all over the place and John couldn’t make them stop. That had kind of sucked a lot. “Yeah. I mean, more people lived. And we beat the game.”

“If it was better, why did you do another retcon?” Nanna’s giving him a funny look, like she’s trying to read his mind, but he’s pretty sure she never got that power.

“‘Cause the trolls weren’t okay.” John sighs a little. “See, the trolls are kind of really into their species propagation. And they had the matriorb, but… The new world we got, something wasn’t right about it? For them, I mean. And the orb died.”

He’d watched the way Kanaya just crumbled inside. John didn’t know what it was like to see someone’s hope die like that before and now he has trouble forgetting it. It’s been a long time and he can see see it as Rose held her. And Karat had been pretending so hard no to care except then the orb was dead and he cared _a lot._ And then Dave was sad, too. And…

“So you used the… retcon ability?” Dad prompts before John can forget he’s still talking.

“Yeah. We had to change the end world. Make it so that the orb would live. And Kanaya told me some stuff about it so we’d get it right this time, but…” He wouldn’t say that what he’d seen in Kanaya then was strength. It had probably been closer to desperation. She gave him the tools he needed, though. That’s all that matters. Or, it would have been if things hadn’t fucked up that way, too. “That time, the fish queen won.”

He feels his chest tighten up as he thinks about what Rose had looked like, spitted up on the trident. He doesn’t want to remember the wail that had left Kanaya’s mouth or the way Dave had rushed at the Condesce like it would make a difference and then he’d been gone, too.

“We didn’t even get a world. Echidna wouldn’t release the tadpole since Karkat died.” It had been near the beginning, that. Karkat, who wasn’t even godtier, who kept running into things like it didn’t matter, had been the first to die that time.

Nanna doesn’t look satisfied with the answer but John kind of doesn’t care what she thinks right now. “So you tried a third time.”

“Yeah. I stopped trying to get a mixed world. This time we got two planets set up, one for humans and one for trolls. It took a lot of hoop jumping and a bunch of time stuff and we kept having to break game rules to do it. The sprites were going half crazy trying to help us when their code kept trying to keep them cryptic and stuff.”

“Did it work?” Dad asks thoughtfully and John nods even though he doesn’t really want to talk about this one.

“Yeah, Echidna let us do it and we put Kanaya and Karkat on the job and the rest of us went and hit all the end bosses. It was kind of epic.”

They’d been so sure that time. He’d just known they’d managed, that it was good and perfect and everyone would be okay, would be _great!_ “So yeah, it worked. Everyone had good planets and I get the feeling the matriorb hatched okay because the trolls didn’t show up to tell me differently.”

It hadn’t been great, though.

“Was I old in this timeline?” Nanna asks and he guesses that’s a fair question.

“No,” John says, shrugging a shoulder. “No, that was new this time.”

“Lucky me.” And wow, he really hates feeling bad about that.

“I really didn’t mean for that.” John peeks at her through his bangs, shifting uneasily in his seat. 

“I mean, I noticed you weren’t here when we woke up this time, and my Nanna was for some reason, but I didn’t know. Okay?”

He’d thought maybe that he’d lucked out somehow and just got a lucky break. Not like it wouldn’t be the first time!

“It was good for a while. I mean, last time was. There was just us but we were all alive, so I thought it was okay?” He looks up at the ceiling, taking a slow, deep breath because this is where things get really bad. “Except the trolls were really far away. I mean, their planet showed up so far away that it took like a month for messages to get to us.”

“But the space players could have-”

John doesn’t know why she stops herself. He doesn’t look at her, not when suddenly he’s seeing what happened like he’s there again. Like he’s watching space shift and give around Jade’s will.

“They tried.” He curls his fingers up tight, glaring at a spot near his feet. “Jade tried.”

Jade, bright and shining and powerful and- …and then not. She’d just…

“What happened?” Dad asks like he almost knows the answer. John blinks a few times as his eyes blur a little.

“The game wasn’t there anymore. So, it was different than using our powers was before.” John stuffs his fisted hands into his pockets, his shoulders hunched up tight. “And we hadn’t really tried to do anything before that. Not really. Nothing big. But then Jade just… “

He lets out a harsh breath, like he’s clearing out his lungs all at once. Jade had just kind of… stopped.

“She hurt something. Inside. And she wasn’t the same after that. She just… She was awake? But not really.” John’s not looking at anyone because he can’t stand to right now. He just keeps seeing Jade and the way she’d sit wherever they put her, hands still in her lap and her ears not even twitching. She wouldn’t blink for hours sometimes. She couldn’t even eat by herself.

“And the others weren’t okay either. They kept missing people who weren’t there. We didn’t even have the carapacians. And then… Rose…”

 _Rose_.

John stops. He blinks once or twice, opens his mouth only to close it because he doesn’t know how to explain, how to tell them. He looks at Dad like Dad might have the answers for him even though he hadn’t been there and didn’t _know_. And John hadn’t- He hadn’t even been the one who handled the _body_. 

Nanna reaches over and rests her hand on his shoulder. It makes a shiver run down his back but he doesn’t try to duck out from under it. He can’t make himself give that up.

“So you did another retcon,” Dad prompts gently like he doesn’t want this to continue but needs it anyway.

“Yeah,” John says with only a tiny tremble in his voice. “I just- I just sent us back all the way this time. So we didn’t play the game at all. I just wanted to not have played the game for a little while.”

He was so sick of the game. He was so sick of watching his friends dying no matter what he did. He didn’t care that maybe they would have wanted something different if he asked them or if they might tell him to just leave it alone or things could get worse.

He’d been tired. He’s still tired, but for a little while it has just been him and Dad and Nanna and he _desperately_ wishes he could get that back.


	2. Chapter 2

**eldritch--nebula asks: As much as I'd like some direct Strider-to-Strider angst, I'm gonna go with Dave's POV after John gives him his memories back as my first choice.**

\----

John touches Dave’s face and he doesn’t really know what to expect from it. Sparkles? Rainbows? A balloon animal? Maybe just to be violently sick. Yeah, he could see that one happening pretty easy-

Except that isn’t what happens. Dave’s insides crush up like so much trash under the sudden deluge of what _did_ happen. His hands twitch like he’s going to grab the sword he doesn’t have anymore and- what, stab him? Jesus christ, _he wants to stab John so much_.

The part of him he’s been missing, the piece he’d found and lost and been searching for, and then _didn’t even known he’d lost_ , and John had taken that from him. John had taken _everything_ from him.

“Dude,” Dave says, because if he lets out much more it is going to be a bloodbath sword or no sword, “ _not cool_.”


	3. Chapter 3

**eldritch--nebula asks: Chapter 13, Dave's POV of the phone call between Roxy and Dirk**

\----

He isn’t really listening for it but Dave _always_ knows when Bro is talking. He’s got a keep sense for it, especially now when someone else is walking around in his skin. How the fuck did Rose deal with this? Dave kind of wants to hit her up on pesterchum but he doesn’t because he needs to know who Bro’s talking to because Bro is using the phone in the living room where anyone could walk in on it so it can’t be a sex line or anything.

“-was going just fine- okay, so it wasn’t really but I mean- anyway, it wasn’t any different except this time suddenly he started yelling at me and-” Bro’s flustered and antsy and Dave watches him from the doorway as he start pacing without thinking about it which is so fucking weird. “Roxy, he you’re not my real father’d me.”

Dave thinks back. Wow, he kind of did, didn’t he? He’s… kind of horrified of his own nerve because if this had really been Bro, he’d have fucking _murdered_ him.

“Why would he even want me to be?!” Bro suddenly yells at the phone like raising his volume suddenly makes him make more sense. “The guy was an asshole! He made Dave’s life a living hell and scared the shit out of him and- do you know he’s still got almost a full case of ramen noodles in his closet?! And who knows how many bottles of apple juice. Because that is apparently a thing he learned to do living with that- that-”

Dave’s chest starts to cave in a bit because Bro _knows_ about the _supplies_ \- that means he might- Bro got in his room any time he fucking wanted and maybe this newer and shittier version doesn’t, but he _could_ and then what the hell would Dave _do-_

“If I don’t telegraph every single move, he jumps out of his goddamn skin the moment he notices me, still! It’s been almost two months!And I’m pretty sure he’s still having nightmares because-”

Bro cuts off and stares ahead as he goes still and- is he shaking? Dave’s rooted to the spot, watching with the kind of fascination he usually reserves for car wrecks. He thinks if he moves, Bro might notice and then there would be hell to pay, but then he kind of thinks maybe it wouldn’t because the way things overlap when Dave’s not careful, he can’t quite tell if this new Bro has ever done that before.

Bro slumps down onto the futon with his head thrown back, boneless and stupid looking in ways he shouldn’t allow, especially not where Dave could see it.

“Roxy, I shouldn’t be here,” Bro says so very soft and more than anything else in the past weeks, that isn’t a sound Dave’s ever heard from him. It catches at Dave’s lungs, makes them squeeze up in something that isn’t quite fear but he doesn’t know what it is. He watches Bro just sit there, holding the phone like a lifeline and just… What the hell does he even do with this?

“We were trying to train his time powers,” Bro says and then details the whole week and a half, bit by bit, leaving nothing out. Dave tunes it out because some of it had been really, really stupid but Bro seemed to know what he was doing and all so… Eh. It’s not like Dave had any clue how to make the time thing do the time things.

“I- yeah. I guess you have a point.”

Dave would like to know what that point is exactly because fuck if he can think of any.

“I didn’t mean to do that.” Bro’s eyes squint behind his shades, just enough for Dave to notice. It’s so weird that he sees anything at all there because usually his Bro is completely unreadable. Then again, usually his Bro didn’t let Dave see him at all.

“Jane and Jake might not have that kind of time. We can fix them, Roxy. Maybe. But we need him. We gotta figure out how to use his powers.”

Dave stiffens because that kind of seems like… That seems kind of important. Like a lot important. Like the kind of important that got stamped in huge red letters marked “top secret” and “urgent” by shady government agencies trying to keep the public from going nutzo and Mad Maxing this bitch.

“I don’t think-” Bro’s breathing hitches and Dave focuses back on him as he snarls out, “They could die tomorrow!”

Wait, die?

“We have the chance to save them-”

Someone could die if he didn’t get his shit together?

Bro drops the phone and Dave twitches at the sudden loud sound. He stays very, very still, waiting to see if Bro will turn on him next, if this means they’ll strife or- Or something else.

This Bro in his Bro’s skin has done so very little like his Bro that Dave honestly has _no goddamn clue_ what he’ll do next.

Except he’s not doing anything. He’s just sitting there and staring at nothing and being so fucking weird. Dave unlatches from the door and Bro doesn’t notice. He steps out from his bedroom and Bro doesn’t notice. He takes a few slow, careful steps towards the futon and Bro _still_ doesn’t notice-

Until he does. Dave stills and stares at him and Bro keeps not fucking doing anything to him. It’s so bizarre. There’s not even a hint of puppet ass.

“Could they really die?” Dave asks before he’s really ready to break the stare off.

“I don’t know,” Bro says in that weirdly honest way that sounds like the truth. “They’re hella old right now. It’s possible.”

Dave’s mouth presses into a firm line and then he looks down at his juice. “So this is important. The time thing.”


	4. Chapter 4

**othercat2 asks: Beginning of chapter two, with Dave and Rose in Dave's room, Dave POV. :D**

\----

“So wait, Bro knows your mom?” Dave says the moment they get the door shut because he cannot get over this shit, it is the weirdest fucking shit on the planet and his weird shit meter has been maxed out for like two weeks now.

“It seems so.” Rose sounds as weirded out as he feels which is only a slight comfort because _what the ever loving fuck_.

“Your mom is like classy as fuck, how would she even _meet_ Bro?”

Because sure, his Bro was cool- in all those uncomfortable ways Dave tries _very_ hard not to think about too deeply- but he was also not a classy fucking guy.

Rose considers the question with a kind of gravity as she sits herself on the edge of his bed like she owns it and wow is it weird how seeing her in person isn’t _actually_ weird. There’s a kind of comfort in her presence he doesn’t think he’s ever felt before with anyone.

“Shenanigans?” she suggests.

“Shenanigans,” Dave agrees with all the solemnity that deserves. 


	5. Chapter 5

**ANON asks: hey! so um idk if you're gonna accept anons for the so-it-goes scene thing, but rose's pov from either the scene with rose dirk and roxy (after dave is grounded ) or the john giving back their memories of the game could be cool! (no pressure tho man! also wow your writing is great and i'm loving so it goes so far!)**

\----

The door slams with as much drama as Rose would expect from Dave. It’s enough to make her titter a little inside but she manages to smooth it on her face down to a smile and instead turns to their… parents. She’s not sure what else to call them.

“Wow, such authority. Double swoon,” not-Mom says and Rose can easily hear the way she’s trying to be cheerful and unaffected. It’s not exactly odd for her to notice but… Well, maybe she’s more willing to believe it’s not done selfishly.

“You appear to be settling into your role well,” Rose says over the lip of her cup and then not-Bro is staring her way and it is vexing how much of his face those sunglasses cover (it’s less than Dave’s but somehow more annoying.)

“Is his legal name actually David?” Bro blurts and that is an interesting question that Rose didn’t know she wanted the answer to, if only to lord it over Dave’s head.

“…Nope. But David sounds so much more official than Dave.” And a second later, not-Mom goes still and quiet, her eyes getting impossibly wide- impossibly _young_ looking- and then she’s staring at Rose with something akin to horror. Rose has seen a similar look on her face several times over the last fortnight but it is still very new and… troubling.

“So, Rose knows,” Bro explains in the most boorish and uncultured fashion possible. Really, Rose is almost embarrassed for him. And Dave always described him as a wordsmith. 1 out of 10, would not recommend.


	6. Chapter 6

**ANON asks: mb roxy's pov of her decision to stay as adult?**

\----

It’s not that Roxy doesn’t _want_ to be herself. She does! She really, really does. She’s an awesome babelicious babe of awesomeness! Of course she does. She misses _her_ body. This one is too tall and her hips are too wide and her feet seem too small for her towering figure. She keeps thinking her clothes won’t fit but they were made for this body, not hers, and she just needs to get used to that.

Except she doesn’t, not when Dirk’s got all these plans about making them all right. And that’s fine and dandy, she’s all for it, except…

What then? Who would look after her precious Rosie who is so absolutely perfect, she really is, everything Roxy could hope for. Who would look after Dirk when he is so bad at doing it himself? (She has no idea how he managed before she came to his life because he is so _incredibly bad_ at taking care of himself.) Then there’s Dave and Jade and…

She agrees with Dirk that they need to save Jane and Jake, even if she doesn’t like making the other kids pull the brunt of the work. She knows they aren’t actually thirteen, not anymore, but they look and sound so _little._ She just wants to wrap them all up in her arms and hug them to her chest and take care of them forever.

Well. There’s nothing that says she _has_ to go through with it. She could stay like this. She could take care of them. Her other self had plenty of money to do that with and Rosie probably wouldn’t mind- Rosie would stay, right? Right. She would totally stay. This is the _best_ idea.

She would totally stay and Roxy is going to be the best mom ever and there is totally no way this will ever backfire in her face. Nope! 


	7. Chapter 7

**ANON asks: Dave's POV of Dirk's mental breakdown/whatever that was where he closed off and started mainlining pop culture at the end of chapter 8?**

\----

Bro has been watching shit for three days. He hasn’t said a word, barely left the futon. Dave doesn’t know what to think. He’s never seen this before. Bro doesn’t even twitch when Dave leaves his bedroom, like he didn’t notice, but Bro _always_ notices.

Dave’s got a tight knot in his belly that feels rough and gross and wrong all the way. He has no idea what to do but he’s pretty sure this is his fault.

The week passes and Bro doesn’t change. Dave picks through the kitchen trying to be as quiet as possible even though Bro doesn’t seem to give a shit anymore. By the second week, they’re running out of most everything and Dave has to dip into his ramen stores. That’s what they’re for and it’s not like this is the first time Bro’s refused to get groceries, but…

Dave has never seen Bro like this. Sometimes hecatches it when Bro sleeps and just kind of watches him. Bro hasn’t had his shades on in days. It’s freaky to see his face so naked. There are little wrinkles around his closed eyes that make them look tired and kind of old. It just magnifies the dissonance of looking at him and seeing a past that isn’t possible.

He’s most of the way through his juice store when he finally figures he should maybe ask someone how to fix this. he’s really only got one option.

> TG: help  
>  TG: i think i broke mr stranger danger  
>  TG: and now im almost out of apple juice  
>  TG: like im on the last fucking bottle right now do you have any idea what will happen when its empty the whole universe will implode i swear to god the apple juice gods will come down upon us and punish us for this grievous sin  
>  TT: Dave, what the hell are you talking about?  
> 


	8. Chapter 8

**ANON asks: Dave's point of view of the backyard scene while at the Crockbert's house?**

\----

Bro- No. His name is Dirk and he is not Dave’s Bro. Well, he is, but not- Fucking _shenanigans._

Dirk follows him out and Dave tracks every tiny movement even though he’s trying not to. Everything about Dirk is wrong. The way he moves, the way he talks, the way his face does the thing where Dave can actually see real emotion he actually feels on it. There is nothing like Bro in that, except sometimes Dirk is _exactly_ like Bro and it keeps tripping him up in the worst ways. They’re the same person just with a different history but Dave is trying to give him a chance.

“I can’t summon the timetables or my game swords,” Dave says. “It’s throwing everything off.”

“Is that why taking us back kicked your ass?” The cadence is almost right and it makes the muscles in the back of Dave’s neck bunch up.

“Nah. Little me just doesn’t have the right muscle memory.”

That’s not really why. Dave just figures he’d feel more normal if he had his shit. He doesn’t even have a sylladex anymore, too fucking weird. He didn’t realize how normal having one was until he didn’t. The game really _isn’t_ here anymore.

Dirk moves and Dave looks at him immediately, watches the way he prowls around him like he’s trying to figure some shit out. Bro never did that. He moved in quick flashes, always with a definite place to go. Dirk doesn’t flashstep nearly as much. It’s fucking _weird_.

“So go slow,” Dirk suggests. “Try aging some grass or something. That’s a pretty simple to manipulate, right? Short lifespan anyway?”

It’s not the shittiest suggestion Dirk’s made so far. Dave considers it and then crouches down to look at John’s Dad’s perfectly maintained yard. He reaches out and lets his fingers brush over a couple blades and wonders just how pissed John’s dad will be that he’s planning on ruining it. Oh well. YOLO.

Dave feels out the pulsing lifeforce inside the grass, seeks out its history and its future. This is the easy part now (it wasn’t before, this is so fucking bizarre) but now he’s got to figure out how to change the present and-

Dirk moves and Dave immediately tracks it before he can stop himself. It’s slow and easy. Dirk moves like he thinks Dave will spook at any moment, and he kind of will. After a few tense seconds, Dave manages to look down again.

“How come you’re not wearing a hat?” It comes out of left field before Dave even realizes it’s been bothering him, but it _does_. He never saw Bro without his signature hat and seeing Dirk in his brother’s clothes without it is just… Kind of like an open wound.

“Not my style and I already look enough like the bastard that raised you right now.”

Dave stiffens. He doesn’t look away from the grass but the muscles of his fingers tighten and flex under his skin. He… He is not actually ready to talk about that.

“I don’t know what all he did to you but I’m trying not to continue it. I mean, I was trying my best with just you and me. I know my best is shit, but-”

Oh. This is a self-destruction thing. “Nah.”

Dirk blinks and Dave turns his head, staring off at nothing. “What?”

“You were okay. At the guardian thing.” Dave shifts, settling down with crossed legs. He’ll admit this much. It was terrifying, not being able to predict the new Bro’s behavior, having no idea what to expect, but… He can tell Dirk tried. Or something. “Kinda nice not to get randomly bombarded with puppet ass. Weird having food in the fridge, though.”

“It was weird having _swords_ in it,” Dirk counters. “ _Shitty_ swords. What the hell did he expect to do with those?”

“Idek. Be a weeby motherfucker maybe.” Dave pulls at a few blades of grass but doesn’t rip them free. “He was kind of always doing weird shit like that.”

Dave has only a sliver of understanding into what made Bro so fucking bizarre. The thing he’s most sure of, the thing that is most different in Bro from Dirk, is that Bro _fucking hated him_. He didn’t notice before the game, before he interacted with so many different people in person and saw how they acted with each other, saw how normal they could be despite differences in species and temperament and all that shit. Bro hated every inch of Dave and Dave has no idea why he even fucking _kept_ him.

It would almost have been better if he hadn’t.

“Hey,” Dirk says after a little while. “We need to get Jane and Jake back to normal and Roxy could use it too, but… If you’d rather I was-”

Dave looks at him because he suddenly knows _exactly_ what is about to come out of Dirk’s mouth and _no_. No, he is almost fucking free and he’s not going to let Dirk take that away from him, not now, not ever, _fuck him for trying_. “I don’t want you to look like him anymore.”

“I-” Dirk’s eyes are big behind the shades and his brows jump, bunching in the middle, and it is _so fucking weird_ to be able to tell what Dirk is feeling because he _never_ knew with Bro-

“I am _sick_ of looking at him.” It comes out with every drop of viciousness Dave’s got in him because he is, he is so over Bro. He never wants to think about Bro again, not when all he’ll remember is how much Bro hated him, how much shit Bro put him through that he had to unlearn later (and it had been so fucking hard to unlearn)-

Except Dirk is not Bro. Dirk is an open fucking book and Dave stares at the way his lips part, how he looks like he’d just been punched. Like maybe Dave just stabbed him to death. It… The red starts receding from Dave’s chest and he just feels…

“Okay,” Dirk says and Dave flinches, because that sounds… “So when you figure it out the other way, drop me first. Might as well fix that problem first.”

Dirk stops looking at him as he gets up. He’s flashstepped in the house a second later. Dave stares at the spot where Dirk was.

_Fuck_.


	9. Chapter 9

**ANON asks:I mean, I could read all of So It Goes from Dave's POV, but if you're still taking requests, I'd like a scene about Dave watching Dirk when Dirk first wakes up. Like his thoughts when Dirk starts tossing out all the swords and puppets and stuff. Just poor, severely confused Dave. <3**

\----

For Dave, it’s just another Monday. It’s not even special enough to warrant much dislike because Dave doesn’t have to go to school or anything because homeschooling and also his life has never revolved around a typical Monday-Friday schedule anyway. Bro works whenever he wants, in and out of the apartment, and Dave just kind of hangs out and does his classwork or works on music or anything he wants.

It’s just another Monday but noon rolls around and he hasn’t caught a single noise from Bro, which is just weird because Bro is half nocturnal most of the time but he’s usually up by now. It makes Dave a little twitchy. He wonders if the guy died or something.

Peeking out his door, Dave glances around the main room of the apartment. Nothing looks out of place except then he notices a limp arm hanging off the edge of the futon. Something spins tight in his chest. He hadn’t been awake when Bro got home last night and now he’s pretty damn sure Bro must have gotten roaring drunk. Great. Guess who was going to ignore the world behind his closed door all day? _This guy._

Dave sneaks slow and careful to the kitchenette to grab a bag of Doritos. He’s actually kind of surprised not to be suddenly accosted for daring to move about freely when Bro’s hung over. He makes it to his bedroom door and thinks he’s home free-

And then Bro jerks up from the futon. Dave goes still and rethinks his plan. Maybe if he doesn’t make a noise…

But Bro isn’t coming at him. Actually, the moment Bro’s on his feet, he crashes down again like his body isn’t quite responding right. Dave takes the opportunity and bails the fuck out. He closes the door as quiet as he can and then jets to his desk. He can hear Bro moving around, hears something crash on the floor and then a long thread of cursing but Bro doesn’t head after him. Dave shakes his head and just gets to work on a new SBAHJ comic.

He doesn’t bother leaving his room until several hours later. And then he stops at the doorway but this time it’s because Bro is on his knees in the kitchen and- “Are you _scrubbing the floor?”_

Dave didn’t mean to say it but Bro jump like three feet in the air. He turns to stare at Dave with something like open fucking surprise on his face, which is so fucking weird, what even?

“It’s filthy,” Bro says and Dave guesses it is. He’s never really paid attention to what a shitstain their shitty apartment is but now that he’s looking, Bro’s cleared up the old beer cans and fast food containers from everywhere. There are a couple full trashbags sitting next to the front door. Smuppets of every color are piled up next to them and Dave can’t help pulling a face at so much puppet ass in one place. Fuck those things are so goddamn dumb.

“You need something?” Bro asks and Dave looks at him again. He hasn’t moved a bit. There’s soap up his arms and soaked into his clothes and now that Dave’s paying attention, the kitchenette is fucking _glistening._ What the _fuck._

“Nope.” Dave closes his door and figures he’ll grab dinner when Bro’s finished his cleaning streak and goes to the store or something.

Except that doesn’t happen. Bro just… sticks around and Dave ends up having to go find shit to eat right in front of him, high on alert and just waiting for the weird calm to break already. His skin itches between his shoulder blades and it takes everything in him not to react.

It’s really fucking weird the way Bro watches Dave make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich like he’s never seen Dave before in his life, though.


	10. Chapter 10

**ANON asks: hi, how about Rose's pov in chp26-27 what of Daves behaviour that makes her go talk to Dirk at the end of 27?**

\----

When Dirk comes inside, there’s a look about him that is… Well, the only word she can come up with is _devastated_. She’s not sure what caused it but she directs him up to where her mother- where Roxy has gone. He leaves quickly enough and she thinks little more about it.

When she goes to check on Dave, she finds him surrounded in patches of dead grass. She’s not sure if he’s been successful in aging it up or just murdering the fuck out of it. He doesn’t seem happy either way. Rose settles down next to him and he gives her a dirty look for the trouble.

“I don’t suppose your massacre has anything to do with the way your brother just sought refuge in my mother’s arms, is it?”

“Do you have to say it like that?” Dave gags dramatically but they can both tell he doesn’t actually care. It’s not like the two of them are already Dirk and Roxy’s ectobabies in the first place.

“I think I do.”

Dave doesn’t end up willing to talk about it so Rose just sticks around him for the rest of the day, studying the possible futures she seems capable of seeing now. It takes a lot of energy and her head aches a lot of the time, but she thinks she’s making progress.

The next morning she doesn’t realize Dirk is out of touch until the next afternoon and she only realizes it’s a problem when she notices the way Dave twitches during dinner like he almost sees something. Time problems, maybe? Somehow, she doubts that.

Thankfully, she and Jade share a room with him again that night (John is refused at the door) which gives ample opportunity to pin his ass down and demand answers. Sweetly, of course.

Dave refuses, Rose asks nicely, Dave still refuses, Rose asks even more nicely with a knitting needle, Dave calls her bluff and refuses again, Jade threatens to smother him with her incredibly tiny prepubescent chest, Dave says he’ll definitely talk if she does, promise, and the three of them end up laughing so hard they start crying.

Rose didn’t realize just how close to the tipping point she had been until she’s sobbing into Jade’s shoulder and babbling about Kanaya and Dave has his face buried against Rose’s belly while muttering things too muffled to make out and Jade makes tiny little dog whines at both of them. It takes a while for them to calm down. Rose isn’t consciously aware of when it happens so much as she notices she’s only hiccuping a little bit and Dave has gone completely silent. He’s still got his arms locked around her waist, awkwardly laying across her lap with his body bent around her. Jade’s propped up against against the wall corner with one arm around Rose’s shoulders and her other hand dug into Dave’s hair. Her face isn’t dry either, but she seems a little better put together than they are.

“Well this was mortifying,” Dave mutters eventually but he makes no move to leave their pile of bodies.

It’s a good, cleansing cry though. Rose admits to being a little awkward about it, too, but they kind of needed that and they sleep really well after, even though the three of them stay crammed on the bed instead of Dave taking the floor blankets.

The next day, Dirk is still AWOL and Dave keeps up the twitching. Once or twice, Rose thinks she almost sees something from the corner of her eye. She almost dismisses it except Dave twitches at the exact same time.

“Guess he’s decided it’s just easier to act like Bro after all,” Dave grumbles before dinner and Rose stops short because abruptly she knows exactly what he means. A hundred internet conversations, tiny hints Dave dropped here and there whether he knew it or not. Dirk must be hanging around, then. Zipping in and out of Dave’s uniquely attuned attention. She’s not sure why he’s doing it except maybe for whatever fight Dave isn’t taking about.

This isn’t going to solve anything. Left to their own devices, Rose is fairly sure they’d never talk again and that won’t do. Dave’s continued mental health is of some value to her.

“Maybe lets come up with a list of demands for John to redeem himself,” she suggests while Dave messes with the floor blankets. He looks up with surprise and Jade perks on the bed as well.

“What, like doing our chores or something?” Dave deadpans.

“it would be a start,” Jade murmurs thoughtfully. They’re all still angry and hurt with what John did but just as eager to forgive him if they can. It’s so awkward not talking to him right now. They all need each other if anything is going to work.

“I’m gonna make him call me Mr. Super Fine,” Dave threatens and Jade snorts.

“Then I’m gonna make him call you Butt Weasel.”

“Mr. Superfine Buttweasel, a sweeter sound I have never heard. Truly, this is your calling in life.” Rose shakes her head and then gets up off the bed. John didn’t bother coming up to be turned away again but Rose has a different duty now.

“Be sure to let him know of my own command,” Rose says as she opens the door. “I demand that he’s not allowed to use cuss words for a day and if he fails, I’ll fine him one favor each to use at my leisure.”

“Whoa, that’s a good demand- wait, where are you going?”

Rose doesn’t answer Jade, instead slipping out to the landing. John’s already settled down in the living room with Jade’s grandpa on the couch, snoring away already. Rose is careful on her way down and pads lightly to the edge of the blankets where John looks up at her with some trepidation.

“Upstairs with you,” she says with a smile that just confuses him.

“What, really?”

“You’d better hurry before anyone changes their mind.”

John doesn’t need to be told twice. He jumps up to his feet, gliding a bit with an unconscious breeze, and then he’s heading up the stairs. He pauses half way up, looking at her quizzically when she doesn’t follow, but Rose waves him on and lays down.

She’s got something to do, after all.


	11. Chapter 11

**ANON asks: Hey if you by chance are still accepting these I would love love love to see dads reaction as he first starts to figure out that this woman is not his mother**

\----

His first indication is that she’s _alive_. But that’s not the strangest thing going on so he doesn’t think too much about that. He’s alive and John is safe and Mother is here and it seems like maybe they just got lucky.

The thing is… Mother is not her usual self. While John is happy to go about doing things healthy young boys do, Jeff watches Mother try things she can’t physically do anymore, over stretch her greatly diminished strength and keep getting caught up by how difficult it can be to stand with her old, stiff body. He isn’t sure why it’s happening. Maybe something to do with her resurrection? Maybe something else.

She’s quieter, too. Keeps staring at him or at John like she’s thinking deep, dark thoughts, but she doesn’t share any, either. Jeff does what he can to help her and keep her comfortable but the more he does, the less happy she seems about it.

The first time she calls him _Dad_ instead of _Son_ on the first try, that’s when _he_ changes. And suddenly it isn’t an elderly mother he remembers but a father. And not a little boy but a little girl.

His name isn’t Jeff. His name is Jedd. Jedd Crocker, father of Jane Crocker… He doesn’t know why he thought it was any different, but if that’s so why is Jane so old and Poppop so young? Why is any of this happening?

He doesn’t know and the next day, he’s Jeff again, and the next he’s Jedd, and sometimes he’s both of them but his daughtermother remains old and frail while his sonfather prances about without any restraint.

He needs to think about this. He needs to understand. And he needs to keep JaneMom safe until he can figure it out.


	12. Chapter 12

**ANON asks: Hey, if you're still doing the alt POV things, could you do Jade's point of view from the time when Dirk contacts her about the tidal wave?**

\-----

Jade tells Dave’s bro that she’s going to go get Grandpa, but what she really does is sit there for several minutes trying to figure out just what exactly she is supposed to do here.

He called her a Witch of Space. She’s pretty sure he means it literally and there is a part of her that thinks it’s probably right, somehow. Jade lifts her hands and looks at them. They don’t seem particularly powerful but maybe she’s been thinking of this the wrong way. Maybe instead of some kind of physical, pseudo-mental power over the size of matter, it’s actually _magic_.

Magic sounds pretty fake but… so do shrinking powers. Jade purses her lips and considers. If she’s somehow supposed to be able to teleport, what _is_ teleportation? Is it simply popping up somewhere else or is it some kind of mass replacement type thing? Trading places with the atoms of air molecules where she wants to go. _That_ makes sense!

She’s already figured out the shrinking has more to do with creating an environment where atoms take up less space and therefore have less volume but remain at a constant mass, which keeps them from tearing apart from their accepted patterns (and even this is a stretch because it still shouldn’t work but it’s like she can almost add a new rule to quantum physics at will.)

Teleportation makes better sense than what she’s already done. Seems simpler, somehow. Maybe something about attuning her own mass into some kind of parallel or twin to the space she wants to go, charging things to trigger a switcheroo or-

Yes. Yes, this makes sense. Sort of. In a cobbled together sort of way. She goes to get Grandpa and see what he thinks.


	13. Chapter 13

**masswisteria asks: Oh my gods I am in love with So It Goes! This fic is everything I ever wanted in a post-game-the-kids-aren't-alright AU.  <3 If you are still taking suggestions for alternate POV scenes, I'd love to see some Rose's POV on getting her memories back (yeah just fuck me up), or her first noticing that something is different with her mom, or her or Dave first discovering that they have weird powers.**

\----

Rose doesn’t know what she expected when John removes the memory block. Maybe to recover some sense of purpose, some maturity road she must have already walked and wouldn’t have to traverse again.

What actually happens is that she is bombarded with three years of friendships, relationships, mistakes, and triumphs all crashing into her mind at once. She feels her body stumble as if it were a physical blow and then she’s steadied but she feels anything but.

There is a sudden deep loss she somehow knew was there but hadn’t known _why_. She has a name for it now.

“You made me forget Kanaya?” Rose whispers with every bit of horror and pain she feels that John doesn’t seem to understand. He stares at her like this is a fight and if it is, it’s one he isn’t going to win. 


	14. Chapter 14

**ANON asks: john's pov during his conversation with dave and jade after rose sends him upstairs??**

\----

“Upstairs with you,” Rose says with a smile that just confuses the hell out of John.

“What, really?” He’d kind of thought they were just going to hate him forever or something like that.

“You’d better hurry before anyone changes their mind.”

John doesn’t need to be told twice. He jumps up to his feet, gliding a bit with an unconscious breeze, and then he’s heading up the stairs. He pauses half way up, looking at Rose quizzically when she doesn’t follow, but she waves him on without her.

Uh, daunting much? John stands on the landing for a bit, staring at his own bedroom door and it is _so incredibly unfair_ that they’ve kicked him out of it. It’s _his_ room. If anything, they should be the ones sleeping on the floor or something.

Well, he admits that maybe he kind of went a little too far. Maybe! Except he totally had good reasons for it!

John opens the door and pokes his head in. He sees Jade sitting on the bed in her pajamas, sitting farther upright as she spots him. Dave’s on the floor sitting cross legged on the blankets. He’s got his arms crossed and a mulish look on his face. His shades sit on the dresser and his face is in no way softened for it.

“Uh. Rose said to come up,” John says lamely. Dave just keeps glaring at him.

“Nice of her not to warn us!” Jade says brightly with a sharper, bitter edge to it. “Hey, butthead.”

“What’s up, fartsmell?”

Despite the fact that she’s still mad at him, that makes Jade almost giggle. He can see the way she wants to smile at it but won’t let herself. Dave’s carved out of goddamn stone though.

“Maybe close the door and sit down?” she suggests.

“Not down here,” Dave is quick to say. “This blanket is under the protection of sacred Strilandia. No Egderps allowed.”

John gives him a dirty look but goes to sit on his bed with Jade once the door’s closed.

“So, we are definitely still mad at you,” Jade says. “We have a list of demands for you to work back into our good graces.”

“Oh yay.” This is not oh yay at all. This is stupid. Don’t they get how hard John has been trying to save everyone?

“I want you to call me Master,” Dave declares and John squints at him.

“I thought it was Mr. Super Fine?” Jade says with a blink.

“Changed my mind. I want you to call me Master Super Fine.”

“What,” John says with the flattest of flat tones.

“And _I_ demand you call him Butt Weasel.” _What_. “Rose suggested putting it together.”

“Master Superfine Buttweasel?” John asks, just for clarification because it is totally something he is willing to call Dave, he’s just making sure this is the desired moniker in full.

“That’s the way,” Dave assures him, deadpan as ever.

This is going to be the easiest punishment ever. “So what did Rose want?”

“Apparently, she’s taking away your cussing privileges for a day,” Jade says, grinning openly.

“Are you fucking serious?!”

“Well there’s one favor to the tentacle queen.” Dave’s smirking now as John glares at both of them. Why the hell did he save them again?

“ _What_.”

“Every time you slip, she gets a favor. That’s the deal.”

“I didn’t agree to this deal!”

Jade snickers and shoves at his shoulder. “Too bad! So sad. This is the price of friendship.”

John rolls his eyes and flops down so he can appropriately sulk. 


	15. Chapter 15

**assistant-blogkeeper asks: I don't know if you're still taking asks about this, but if so I would love to know what the heck Dave woke up to in the Waffle House. (Or if that's too tricky, his first time meeting Jane from one of their points of view maybe?) Also, compliments: not only are you a great writer who has the characters down pat, but you write so much so regularly! It's been inspiring me to get my ass in gear on my own fic projects, so thanks for that too. :D**

\----

Dave wakes up when something breaks on the floor. He gives a little grumble and manages to get his eyes open. He kind of wishes he hadn’t.

Across the booth, Br- _Dirk_ is shaking. Dave abruptly goes fully awake. Dirk isn’t just shaking, he’s fucking rattling apart. Before Dave can figure out what the hell to do, the waitress zooms in and grabs Dirk by the shoulders.

“Randy! I need your help! Patty, time it!” she yells and then the cook shows up and the two of them drag Dirk from the booth. His body keeps moving in crazy but the waitress and the cook start shoving things out of the way so Dirk can’t knock into them. Several customers start making noises about what’s going on but Dave just keeps staring at Dirk freaking the fuck out.

The waitress waves over another woman to help Randy the Cook keep Dirk from knocking into anything and hurting himself and then rushes to call 911. She drags an old, chunky cordless phone with her as she comes back and sits down next to Dave as she tells the responder what’s going on. Her voice is so calm and collected. Dave doesn’t know how she’s doing it because he keeps feeling more and more sick inside the longer it goes on. The waitress finishes talking on the phone and hands it over to Randy the Cook before turning to Dave.

“It’s going to be okay, honey,” she tells him. “We’ve got help on the way and they’ll make it right, okay?”

“Okay.” Sounds fake, but okay. Dave finds himself staring at her instead as she keeps talking to him, keeping his attention. He doesn’t know why or even why it _works._

“One minute, thirty-eight seconds,” the woman with the watch says grimly.

“With another ten for before we noticed,” Dave’s waitress says and then she nods down to Dirk, who isn’t moving anymore. Randy the cook has him on his side and Dirk is just kind of laying there. He’s staring ahead but it doesn’t look like he’s even seeing anything.

It is terrifyingly close to looking at a dying person. Not that Dave has actually seen someone die, but…

“Paramedics in the parking lot,” the watch lady says and Dave’s waitress gets up to start shooing people back as a bunch of people in blue uniforms start inside and make a beeline for Dirk. Dave gets gently tugged out of the booth by Randy the Cook so the paramedics have more room. Randy the Cook gives him what is probably supposed to be a reassuring look before he goes back the cooking range. Dave stands there alone, watching the paramedics talk to each other with terrifying calm and try to get Dirk to talk to them.

Dave feels a hand slide over his shoulders and there is the waitress, giving him a gentle look. He… feels a little better. Not much, but it’s something. 


	16. Chapter 16

**eldritch--nebula asked: This one is all your fault, since you practically begged me to prompt this to you. (by begged I mean that you mentioned in passing that this had gone unprompted): Roxy's POV upon waking up as Momlonde.**

\---

Roxy doesn’t remember going to sleep but when she wakes up, she’s in a new place. Well, not _new_. It’s her place except not quite right. It’s decorated just a little differently, the colors are different. It’s tidy and clean and smells faintly of some kind of floral mix.

She has no idea how she got here. Roxy starts getting up out of bed and then miss judges the edge of the mattress somehow which spills her onto the floor when she loses her balance and can’t recover fast enough.

Roxy groans and glares at her legs and wow, they look super long in this weird silky nightgown she’s wearing. She climbs up to her feet and then almost falls over because for some reason she’s too tall. Maybe it’s some kind of weird optical illusion-

_WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO HER TITS?!_

Roxy stares down at her chest with fascinated horror. Her bust is _way_ too big and so are her hips and- She runs to the bathroom and keeps tripping over her stupid feet along the way. She even manages to bash into the edge of the door frame before she gets inside to where there’s a mirror and-

That is not her face. Well, it is, but. It’s.

Those are not her shoulders or her tits or her goddamn _face_.

She makes a noise that she can’t quite describe and she isn’t sure why she feels like crying and isn’t. This. _What_.

What the hell turned her into a _grownup?_


	17. Chapter 17

**ANON asks: hi, i'm not exactly sure if you're still taking prompts, but if you are, could you please do jade's pov as she's trying to move the island up until dirk does his thing? thank you so much, so it goes is amazing**

\----

Grandpa sits across from her on the ground, cross-legged even though it makes his knees hurt. She’d tell him he didn’t have to but she’s not sure she’ll be able to manage this without being in physical contact with him. Their knees are touching and Jade sits up straight and purposeful as she tries to reach into the part of her that makes the shrinking happen, retool it for teleportation instead.

While Grandpa keeps watch on the waters, Jade closes her eyes and takes a nice, deep breath. She’s able to touch the shining bit inside of her that pulses with more power than she knows what to do with. It doesn’t like letting her manipulate it, like there’s something holding it back, but Jade perseveres. She has to save them, Grandpa and herself, and she will do everything she must.

Grandpa said he believed in her. She has to trust that and trust what Dave’s brother said. She can do this. She can-

Something shifts and suddenly she can’t breathe. It feels like there are hands gripping her lungs, her heart. Her eyes snap open as she tries to warn Grandpa-

And then with sudden crystal clarity, Jade _remembers_.

The island falls apart around them but she stitches it back together as strong winds suddenly howl around them like a living thing. Then she’s got Grandpa’s ( _how is he alive_ ) hand and they’re jumping. It takes more effort than it should, than she remembers it taking, but she knows what to do. She knows how to save them.

And then they’re sinking into sand and she just… kind of goes to sleep. Mission accomplished.


	18. Chapter 18

**pinkangel156-dreams asks: Hi, I'm totally in love with this story!!! Wondering if we can see Jake's pov after Jade teleports them?**

\---

One moment, he’s crouched on the ground as huge chunks of the island move around him. The next, his feet are sinking into sand and Jade crumbles into a lifeless pile. Jake stares around himself in bewilderment. There are people here, all around them, and so many of them are staring back at him.

Well, he guesses he would too if someone appeared out of thin air.

Kneeling down, he rolls Jade onto her back and checks her throat. Good, strong heartbeat, good. Something inside him he hadn’t quite realized was afraid lets go.

Okay. Plan time! He can do this. Jake gathers Jade up in his arms and props her against his shoulder as he resolutely starts heading for the nearby town. Time to find a phone! He bets Roxy might be able to help them get… er, _somewhere_. He’s not sure where Roxy is right now, or anyone else for that matter, but it can’t be that hard!

Jake’s got this. It’s going to be fine! If hoping for good things got him this far, it’s sure to get him the rest of the way. 


	19. Chapter 19

ANON asks: During chapter 29 did Rose hear Roxy say she was going to stay an adult? If so can we get her reaction to that and the following hug? Thank you

\----

“Stop doing this to me,” Roxy says to Dirk. “As your new mother, I forbid it.”

Rose blinks a little from the doorway and watches as her mother smothers Dirk with affection he doesn’t seem to mind at all. He looks so happy to be caught up in her arms and she’s so happy to have him and… It’s…

She’s not exactly jealous. She’s been on the receiving end of similar affection for months now because Roxy has apparently none of the love filters that Rose’s mother developed.

_I suppose I have a new brother now_ , Rose thinks to herself. One of three now counting Dave. It is an odd thing to think about having been raised as an only child. She doesn’t _think_ she’s jealous, probably isn’t, but…

It’s weird. She will have to think very deeply on this. 


	20. Chapter 20

**feralgolem asks: If ur still doin POVs for So It Goes, could u do one for Jake? Preferably him wakin up as Grandpa (Roxy's was so good!!) But literally anything would be greatly appreciated. U've written such a fantastic story, and the plot has developed so well**

\---

Jake wakes up and his vision is even worse than usual. He blinks at the ceiling- At a ceiling that is _definitely not his, why is he in Grandma’s room-_

Except it _isn’t_ Grandma’s room, exactly. It’s the right physical room, sure, but the stuff’s all wrong. Who’s been messing with Grandma’s stuff?! Jake starts getting up and then trips over himself and the sheets and hits the ground and _oowwwww._

His back aches and his knees hurt and he’s got a crick in his shoulders and his ankles are sore and… Jake climbs painfully to his feet and then stumbles as his balance pitches. He ends up sitting on the edge of the bed in absolute confusion.

He looks at his legs which seem too long and at the bottom are old, wrinkled feet with a few age spots and a scar on the right one across his big toe, which looks broken. He reaches down to touch it and yeah, it was broken once but it healed mostly right and-

His hands are wrinkly, too. He flexes them in front of him and fights down the sudden bubble of hysterical laughter that wants to come free.

“Grandpa!” The girl’s voice startles him as it continues, “Breakfast’s ready! Stop sleeping the day away!”

Jake stares at the closed bedroom door and tries very hard not to freak out. 


	21. Chapter 21

**eldritch--nebula asks: Roxy or Jane, latest chapter, as they realize something has gone TITS UP and something's wrong with Dirk.**

\----

It’s pretty obvious something is up when Dave and Dirk stumble down the stairs together like they’re drunk. Jane doesn’t know _how_ bad until Dirk suddenly topples right at the kitchen door and Dave has to lower him to the floor-

Dirk is a _kid_ again. Younger than she’s seen him- _What the hell did those two idiots do?!_

Jane’s down on the floor with them immediately. She checks over Dirk, funneling in power to reach into him and get a good read on what the hell this is and- _No!_ Dirk’s body is stressed and tearing itself up from the sudden temporal change Dave’s put him through and he’s- He’s _dying._

Not on her fucking watch he’s not.


	22. Chapter 22

**ANON asks: Hello! I dont want to bother you if you're busy, but if you are still doing those pov chapters I would love to see Dave's pov from chapter 29 if you have the time :3 <3**

**ANON asks: oh gosh if youre still doing the alternate PoV SIG scenes could we see one from Dave’s PoV during the first part of ch29 and Dirk’s almost age-regression induced death (because i love pain and suffering orz)**

\----

Dave realizes something is wrong almost immediately because Dirk looks too young. He’ll have to fix that. It doesn’t hit him how wrong things are until Dirk is barfing up his guts and can’t stand up. And then it’s a mad scramble to get him downstairs to help because Jane is a healer and she has to _fix this_.

The utter horror on her face when he drags Dirk from the stairs is just icing on the cake of Dave’s own. And then Dirk topples and Dave almost doesn’t catch him in time to save him from a goddamn concussion.

Jane doesn’t bother dressing him down. She makes him get Dirk on his back and then she’s touching his neck, his face, pressing her wizened fingers to his wrist and counting under her breath. Dirk just lays there all dazed and seriously fucked over and Dave did this. Dave fucking did this.

“Dirk!” Jane says with a sharp authority in her voice. “Stay with me. I’m going to heal you, okay?”

“Okay?” Jesus but Dirk sounds fucked up. He just kind of stares at her without seeming to understand what he’s seeing. Jane puts her hands on him and Dave’s skin prickles as energy raises around them.

Then Dirk starts screaming and jerking under her. Roxy shows up out of no where (maybe she was already there??) and holds down his shoulders with all her weight. Her face is sheet white and tears roll freely down her cheeks. Dave finds himself caught on them.

“Dave!” Jane snaps over Dirk’s screaming and he jerks. “Get him _right!”_

Yeah. Right, yes, he can do that. He… Dave stares at Dirk and then reaches out to fix what he fucked up. 


	23. Chapter 23

**ANON asks: If you're still taking prompts for the asides, how about Rose and Roxy coming to Houston from Dave's POV?**

\---

Bro has been really, really weird about not coming in his room or even too near the doorway. He’s never knocked and that is what trips Dave up the most. For a few seconds, Dave sits there and has no idea how to respond. Does he open the door? Does he just tell Bro to come in? Is this going to somehow extend the offer out indefinitely?

God he hopes not.

But he can’t just make Bro stand out there. His weird mood the last couple weeks could break and then what would Dave do. (Go back to things being _normal_. Even if it isn’t any better, at least he’d know what the hell to expect.

“It’s open,” he tries and hopes he’s not making a mistake.

Bro doesn’t even open the door, just talks through it. “Just wanted to give you the heads up but I’ve got a friend heading down to visit tomorrow.” 

A friend? Bro doesn’t have friends. He’s never brought someone to the apartment before. Sometimes he stays out all night elsewhere and Dave’s always assumed he’s out getting laid or something, but Dave’s never seen him interact with anyone but Dave or the landlord.

“Kay?”

“You’ll like her,” Bro assures him and that is _so weird_. “She’s bringing her daughter, too.”

Dave isn’t sure why he should care and then wonders if this is like Bro’s girlfriend from Canada or something. Which is also super weird to think about, Bro actually giving a shit about someone.

“Yeah. Just thought I’d warn you.”

Dave feels more than hears him leave. He wishes he understood what the hell is going on with Bro right now. Maybe he’s got some terminal illness and this new lady friend is going to take Dave with her when she leaves.

He hopes not. Bro might be weird as fuck right now, but at least he’s vaguely familiar. 


	24. Chapter 24

**gsunny6 asked: You should do some of the arguements on the nights John’s kicked out.**

**\----**

John opens the door. He’s only a little surprised that his friends are already inside but stops dead when Dave says, “Nope.”

“Wha-”

“ _Nope_.”

John blinks at him and looks to Rose for help (not Jade though, she’s still really super mad at him) but Rose just lifts a brow like that is even a goddamn answer.

“It’s _my room!”_ he protests.

“Doghouse,” Dave says and that’s that.

It happens again the next night and John wonders how long they can stay mad at him. 


	25. Chapter 25

**HikarySanoko18 asked: I love this story, can you do a chapter where we see Jakes pov when he sees Dirk again or maybe how he feels when Dirk is dying from the deaging??? Especially since we havent had anything from his pov yet!**

\----

He looks... He looks dead. That’s all Jake keeps centering on, the way Dirk lays so still, how pale he is, how even his freckles seem washed out and non existent. He shouldn’t look that way. He should _never_ look that way.

Jane and Dave are working hard, pouring power into Dirk’s body, but he’s... is he even breathing? Jake doesn’t know and that is absolutely terrifying.

They won the game. They escaped. This shouldn’t be happening. He doesn’t want it to happen. He’s...

He curls his hands into fists at his sides. There’s not much he can do, but...

He centers all his thoughts on Dirk, studies his slack face and the way his hair falls all wrong this way, crunched up by the floor and thrown haphazard from his face, and then he _hopes._


	26. Chapter 26

**ANON asks: All the kids discuss the finer points of Dadberts ass to the horror of Jane and John.**

\----

“Can we not?” John says, getting pale and sick looking even as Jane blushes angrily.

“We’d try but it’s an exercise in futility,” Dirk admits because damn. He thought he and Roxy were the only ones but Jade’s nodding sagely.

“You should hope you get some of those genes,” she says, patting John’s shoulder and that just makes his face even funnier.

“I’m not even-”

“Uuugghhh why,” Jane groans, covering her face.

“Take it as a compliment!” Roxy chirps with a huge grin. “Your dad is the hottest dad ever.”

“While I am generally not interested in men,” says Rose, “I must admit he holds a certain visceral attraction.”

Roxy nods in solid agreement as Dave looks skyward.

“Oh shit, he’s hot,” he deadpans and John looks at him like he’s the worst traitor of all time.

Jake is suspiciously quiet the entire time but when Dirk glances his way, he starts to blush all at once.

“You okay, dude?” Dirk asks him more quietly.

Jake gives him a glance and takes a deep breath before blurting out of no where, “I just- stupid sexy dads!”

They all stare at him as he covers his face with shame.


	27. Chapter 27

**kalicofox asks: Jeff's point of view while the kids are doing their computer magic?**

\----

Jeff has absolutely no idea what they’re doing but it seems to be getting things done. He obligingly keeps them stocked up with tea and water (children do not need to be imbibing large amounts of caffeine, after all!) and takes paperwork as it’s spat out by the printer so he can keep the new records nice and neat.

He now has a new filing cabinet and tidy files on each child. He’ll have to make appointments with John’s pediatrician because the Striders, Jade, and Jake need checkups and the other children could use them, he’s sure.

This is going to be quite the undertaking.

“Jane’s dead!” Roxy suddenly shouts and for a second, Jeff is horrified before he remembers the unfortunate business of death faking and realizes in context what she means. He is still going to have to have a talk with that girl about tact. Probably some of the others as well. It’s a lesson that never stuck with John but he has hope for the others.

He always wanted a big family. It’s a little round about and strange, but he certainly has one now. 


	28. Chapter 28

**asswisteria asks: For the alternate POV prompts, I'd love to see Dave and Rose's reactions to Karkat's message!**

**ANON asks: For So It Goes, could you do Dave's or Rose's POV when they see the trolls' message or the POV of any of the kids who were raged while they were being reaged? (If you haven't already, and if the prompt isn't too much)**

\----

“What,” Dave says and it is flat and just waiting for a punchline because what does Dirk mean by “the British are coming.”

“Here.” Dirk shoves his phone into Dave’s hands. There’s a story queued up from some news site Dave wouldn’t be caught dead on and-

Wait a second.

He reads it once, twice, a third time for good measure because- He doesn’t think anyone could quite fake that distinct cadence and verbosity, the “subtle” tinge of irritation. 

“Karkat,” Rose says over his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear.

“Kanaya,” he returns and she’s so giddy she actually gives the tiniest little squee. He kind of wants to as well.

Karkat, and presumably some other trolls, is coming. Here. To him.

He had been trying so hard not to miss him, not to doom this timeline the way he’d apparently helped doom another one from pining. Now he doesn’t have to. 


	29. Chapter 29

**idiomie asks: For the POV prompt, anything from Dave's perspective really. Either early days, before he knew Dirk wasn't his Bro or that conversation in the backyard (in chapter 31) after he deages Dirk, please!**

**demonlucy-chan said: Could I ask for Dave’s pov when Dirk goes and talks to him in chapter 31, when he finds out how little Dirk values himself :3**

\-----

Dave’s sitting in the middle of the walkway swell in front of the door. He twitches as Dirk steps outside but doesn’t turn around because right now he is full of emotions and would really rather Dirk didn’t get involved- So of course Dirk sits down next to him because Dirk is so ridiculously bad at reading situations. How did he even survive this long?

Dirk should be back inside and, like… Hanging out with Jane or something. She’s the reason he’s even still alive, after all.

“It’s okay,” Dirk says out of the blue and that is the stupidest thing, it is the farthest thing from the truth Dave’s ever heard. How _dare_ he?

Dave’s shoulders hunch forward as his head dips and then he mutters out, “Sure.”

“It is, though,” Dirk insists. “A little bumpy but it turned out okay.”

Since when is Dirk the ray of sunshine? Dave turns his stare to the side of the yard so he doesn’t have to look at Dirk even from the periphery. He is so not down for this right now.

“You did good with Rose and Jade today,” Dirk says and Dave hunches even more. “They’ll be up and running around by dinner.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Dave tells him with a harder edge to his voice because he really, _really_ doesn’t. Dave wishes he wouldn’t. He wants to wallow in what a shitbag he is and how much he fucked everything up- how Dirk almost died for real-

“You’re my brother,” Dirk blurts and that is definitely not what Dave expected to hear but it’s got him jerking upward and turning to stare at Dirk because-

Because.

Dirk shifts a little uncomfortably and continues, “Well, you are.”

“I killed you,” Dave hisses. “You get that, right? It’s not some TV spook cliffhanger or a convenient sad fanfic trope, I literally killed you a couple times and would have fucking failed to bring you back if Jane wasn’t there.”

Dirk blinks and looks stupidly surprised. “So?”

_THE FUCK?!_ “So?!”

“Yeah. So?” Dirk shifts and leans back with his arms to brace him. “So, I’ve died a couple more times. At least you didn’t decapitate me.”

Not this time, but Dave has the vague notion he probably has at some point in one timeline or another because that sounds exactly like the kind of shit he’d do. He’s been really good at fucking up in the worst ways. His eyes flicker to Dirk’s neck and then Dave looks pointedly across the street instead.

“Hey,” Dirk murmurs more softly, keeping it low and calm between them. “I already told you to start with me, remember?”

“Yeah.” It comes out quiet and and choked and Dave hates himself for taking Dirk up on that offer. He shouldn’t have. He so completely should have waited until they had some back up. He’d just been so sure he could do it-

“So it’s a good thing you did. I mean, you don’t even know me that well. It’d have been way more traumatic if you started with one of your friends.”

Dave turns back to stare at him. What? What the fuck is this bullshit coming out of Dirk’s mouth. It’s like Dirk doesn’t think he’s anything to lose or that he’s…

“I’m not saying you would have messed up if you started with your friends-”

“You’re not expendable,” Dave snarls at him and Dirk gets caught short. He stares at Dave in honest surprise that just makes him that much angrier. “What, you think I chose you because you’d hurt the least to lose?”

And Dirk’s face makes it clear he _does._ Which is just- Dave’s chest is tight and painful and he wants to punch Dirk in the _face_.

“Unbelievable.” Dave goes back to glaring at the house across the street. “And they say I’m suffering from a ridiculous lack of self confidence.”

“I figured it was so I wouldn’t look like him anymore,” Dirk offers, sounding confused.

Dave snorts, low and bitter. “You still look like him.”

Different enough that it isn’t so shitty to look at him but there is no way anyone would mistake Dirk not being Bro. Dave… doesn’t really mind that, though. Dirk is so completely different than his brother that it’s unreal. The weeks Dave spent not remembering Dirk had been weird and bizarre and he’d wondered if maybe Bro had some kind of terminal illness or some shit, but… It hadn’t been terrible. He’d… kind of almost started liking it.

“For what it’s worth,” Dirk says after a while, “I’m glad I met you.”

Dave doesn’t answer because he literally can’t. His throat tightens up over any possible words because… because something, he can’t-

“I kept thinking about what it would be like and it… definitely failed to live up to real life.” Dirk shakes his head a little. “It was better, even in this weird fucking circumstance. I just wish I could have done a better job of the big brother thing.”

Dave rakes his fingers back through his hair and lets out a frustrated sigh. _Idiot._ “Dude. I don’t know what your malfunction is, but you were kind of kickass at the big brother thing.”

Dirk startles a bit and Dave goes on.

“I meant that, okay? When I said you were okay at it. Except you were better than okay.” Dave glares at him because he expects Dirk to disagree but Dirk just keeps staring at him with that weird openness he’s got that Dave doesn’t understand at all, but kind of prefers to Bro’s absolute inscrutability. “I should have appreciated it more instead of pushing your buttons all over the place.”

“Dave, it’s fine. I read the forums, I kind of knew what to expect,” Dirk protests, like that makes so much difference. “Your bro had suddenly lost his mind and turned Susie Homemaker on you. Anyone would have pushed some buttons.”

“I was trying to figure out what would make you hit me,” Dave throws out like a gauntlet. It had been… uh. He had known the boundaries before. Sure, Bro could be unpredictable and sometimes he snapped when he hadn’t before, but Dave usually knew what to avoid to keep from getting his ass beat too hard.

“I wouldn’t,” Dirk says, fainter and gentle, and Dave shrugs.

“Yeah, I know now. You only did the once and I made that not happen, so-”

“I _what?!_ ”

Wow, that sounded pretty damn horrified. Dave frowns a second and then shrugs his shoulders because it’s really not a big deal. “When we were starting the whole time training thing. We strifed. You knocked me off the building. I made it not happen.”

Dirk’s staring at him, horrified and disgusted with himself for a thing he can’t even remember doing and wow, he is taking this _totally personally_. That isn’t what Dave meant to do.

“Dude,” Dave says, leaning a bit to look at him closer. “It’s fine. You were trying to help me and I’m pretty sure this stunt makes us even.”

Dirk doesn’t seem all that comforted. “How about we promise not to try to kill each other again?”

“Sure.” It’s a good enough accord.


	30. Chapter 30

**feralgolem asks: Could you do John's POV abt the tutoring/age dealio?**

\----

Dad tells them he’s got everyone in tutoring classes and at first John groans with them because _school_ but- He’s not getting tutoring. He’s going back to school-school. Because he’s still thirteen.

It’s not that John hates school or anything but he’d been kind of thinking they’d all go together- which is kind of dumb because everyone else is sixteenish and going to high school, huh?

He’s cool. He’s fine. Really, he’s cool.

Dirk and Roxy lump on the study materials like rabid beasts and Dave uses his as a laptop stand and John kind of watches them from the outside because…

Look, he doesn’t want to be older anymore. He missed out on a _lot_ and he deserves to have it back even if no one else decided to stick it out with him and…

He ends up in his dad’s office and says, “The school didn’t suddenly get uniforms since last year, right?”

Dad tilts his head a little and goes back to filing a few things into his shiny new filing cabinet. “No, not that I’m aware.”

“And there’s still a ban on slap bracelets?”

“I’m not sure but I would assume so.”

John shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “I think I need a new backpack.”

“We’ll pick up supplies a little later this week.”

Which is the normal procedure, nothing weird or anything but…

“John,” Dad says, quieter and more direct in a way that gets John’s back straighter. “What is this really about?”

John looks at his feet and then at the walls and then studies Dad’s desk a bit. “I just…”

“Are you considering growing up with the rest of them?”

No! Except maybe. Except sort of. John shrugs his shoulder a little. “I don’t even know anymore.”

“It’s all right to be confused,” Dad says, all gentle and soft like when John was little and had nightmares. “It should be your decision. Whatever you decide, I will support you the whole way.”

John shifts a little, feeling like he should be running or jumping or doing something. “I can still have the ghost decals, right?”

“As long as Jake hasn’t veto’ed them.”

John snorts but it’s genuinely amused instead of derisive. “He better not.”

He feels better now.


	31. Chapter 31

**kalicofox asks: Reactions of the paramedics/waffle house employees to suddenly getting a thank you like Dirk's giving them? Please?**

\---

It’s Randy who picks up the mail for Boss that morning because Randy is a saint and also can’t read much more than their names so Boss doesn’t get all bitchy and paranoid about it. If he had half a mind, he could just get his own damn mail but Stace doesn’t say that aloud because she’s classy and also not about to lose this job. The kids’ birthdays are all coming up in the next few months and she’s been saving hardcore to make sure they get a good treat each.

Since it’s Randy who does it, bless him, he recognizes their names on several envelopes and passes them out without a thought. Stace considers hers with a frown because it’s definitely her name on it but this came from _Washington._ And not the important government one, either. Frowning, she looks over the sender’s name and Dirk Strider seems really familiar for some reason but she has no idea. Shaking her head, Stacy starts opening her letter only to pause as Patty gives a shout from over the counter.

“P-tat, honey, you okay?”

Patty lifts her head and stares at Stace like she’s just seen a ghost. The envelope is sitting on the counter and in her hands is a long- is that a check? Stace leans over the counter and Patty turns the check in her hands and-

If Stace wasn’t leaning on that counter, she’d have fallen down. That’s more money than- That could pay off her mortgage _ten times!_ She looks at the signature. _Dirk Strider_.

Randy steps over to them with his own check, same as Patty’s, and then says, “I’m getting another dog.”

“Don’t you dare, we talked about that,” Stace mutters mostly on principle, even as she tears open her own envelope. There’s a check there, same as theirs, and this is ridiculous. It has to be some kind of prank- but there’s a letter, too.

_Dear Mrs. Wolowitz,_

_This is definitely not a trick. My name is Dirk Strider. I had a seizure in your restaurant several weeks ago. Because of your quick actions, I was not harmed and able to recover. You also showed great kindness for my brother and I appreciate how you looked after him when I couldn’t._

_I’m not good at thank yous but I figure everyone can use a little more money. Or a lot more. I had a lot and I’m sure you and the others will make better use of it than I could. So, please go on vacation or buy a ridiculous car or invest it all and become a millionaire later. I don’t care what you do with it, just take care of you._

_Thanks,_

_Dirk Strider_

The seizure guy. Stace remembers him now, him and his poor, cute kid. Brother, she guesses. She’d been pretty worried about those two! And now this?!

“ _Two_ more dogs,” Randy says with a determined nod.

“No more dogs, but maybe you could get a better place with a gigantic yard,” Stace steers him and Randy gives that a thoughtful few seconds before deciding she’s probably right.


	32. Chapter 32

**feralgolem asks: ok i kno i just asked for a pov n i know you said u werent doing a sequel BUT could you do a Karkat POV of writing that message? Or does that like not count?**

\----

It becomes obvious really quickly that although Captain Ironclaw is head of the mission, he has absolutely no head for the delicate business of ambassassination. Thankfully, he’s just as aware of that as everyone else, being such a levelheaded olive as he is. (The only other olive Karkat knows well is Nepeta but apparently they aren’t usually half feral. He can’t decide if this is weird or if she is. )

In any case, what this means is that while Ironclaw _should_ write the message, he leaves that duty where it should be left because that is how Her Imperious Condescension wants it: Karkat, who was named the Chief Ambassassin for the mission. Karkat knows the title is mostly meaningless and Meenah just likes making things seem bigger and more official than they are, but it does mean that the two _actual adults_ on board are technically ranked under him, a mutant, and it rankles at least one of them. Not that Karkat gives a shit about what Ambassassin Softouch thinks. Kanaya is a lot scarier.

The desk and chair in his bunk - which he gets to himself because Meenah can’t fucking help herself - are made for adults so he feels a little silly using them at his small, six sweep size. He gamely works through it anyway - because like fuck is he going to complain after the goddamn Condesce gave him special treatment - and composes his message.

There’s no telling who’s actually going to get it but surely Dave is looking out for something from him. Why _wouldn’t_ he? Karkat had certainly been looking for something from _him_. (Not that he had, unfortunately, but he blames that more on the fact that Earth keeps sending out the most ridiculous broadcasts so surely Dave’s just got lost in the mess.)

He’s almost done when Kanaya waltzes in like she owns the place (he doesn’t actually mind) and leans right over him so she can read through what he’s got so far.

“Meet your expectations?” Karkat grumbles and Kanaya gives a thoughtful little hum.

“Tell them about the skirt over pants autrocity,” she says and Karkat rolls his ocular bulbs but does it anyway because he has been listening to her complain about it for perigees already and he might as well share the pain. If anything, it will at least convince their silly human friends that it’s really them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a sidenote on this one, if anyone is wanting to write fic in this verse, you do NOT have to keep my ideas for what was going on trollwise :D LET YOUR IMAGINATIONS SOAR


	33. Chapter 33

**ANON asks: jane n john prank war with casualties**

\----

“Why did you think this was a good idea?” Dad says with the low, careful tone that means he is _really pissed._ Jane and John both fidget under his hard gaze.

“We didn’t think he’d _faint_ ,” John tries miserably.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Jane adds.

Dad glares at both of them and silently points to the couch where Jade is busy fanning poor Jake, who still hasn’t come around just yet. John and Jane hang their heads.

“Now, it’s time to discuss punishment,” Dad says but at that moment, there are a rush of Strilondes. Dad’s jaw tightens and he mutters, “Not a good time, kids-”

“Trust me, you want to see this,” Dave says and then shoves the phone into Dad’s hands. He hits play on the video and… Oh. _Oh_.

“Not responsible,” John pipes up quickly, eyes getting wide.

“That isn’t a prank,” Jane says as she elbows him in the chest.

“They’re coming,” Dirk confirms, looking completely self satisfied in a way that means he had to have been the first to know. “The trolls are coming.”


	34. Chapter 34

ANON asks: How about... dirk's (or john's) POV of dave and rose's reaction to karkat's message?

\-----

“What,” Dave says and it is flat and just waiting for a punchline because he doesn’t seem to understand that Dirk is bringing him actual good news that will actually make him happy.

“Here.” Dirk shoves his phone into Dave’s hands, making sure neither of them accidentally closes out the story on it. Dave’s brows twitch closer together as he steadies it and then gives the article a good look through. And then Dave pauses and Dirk watches him scroll back up and reread a few times. His mouth opens just a little but he doesn’t speak. His brows slowly lift up to nearly his hairline.

Dirk can’t stop smiling even as Rose comes up to read over Dave’s shoulder. And then she’s brightening with sincere happiness.

“Karkat,” Rose says, grinning from ear to ear.

“Kanaya,” Dave returns with some shock and then Rose gives a little happy sound Dirk is a lot more used to hearing come out of Roxy. Dirk watches them share a look, watches something like _hope_ blossoming on their faces.

Yeah. This was a good idea. 


	35. Chapter 35

**ANON asks: Considering the differences between Alternia and Beforus, can we get Meenah's reaction to becoming )(IC and inheriting the empire and its problems?**

\----

It’s not that she wasn’t expecting to suddenly be in a much bigger, absolutely bodacious body, but it still takes a day or so to get used to her new, longer reach and the amount of distance she can get in a single step.

She likes the hips, though. And maybe she kind of likes the way her courtiers skitter around her if she looks at them too hard. It’s pretty hilarious.

What is less hilarious is to stupid way this empire is being run! She gives her reports a glare as she looks over them, trying to figure out just what to do first. It’s obvious she has to do _something._ Maybe Beforus had had it’s problems but Alternia is a hellhole of proportions she’s not willing to settle with.

This is going to be more work than John had made it seem. She’s got this though. She’s got a dozen hats worth of hair, a hand full of ultimate power, and a head full of crazy ideas.

First things first, time to track down some adorable underaged subjects and pick them up from planet side early to join her insane reign. 


	36. Chapter 36

ANON asks: If it isn't to troublesome would love having Jeff's reaction to meeting Roxy and then realizing she's not the same woman he once went on a date with.

\----

Ms. Lalonde looks as beautiful as she did the last time Jeff saw her. When she comes off the plane, it’s like he’s decades younger with the sudden beat of affection in his heart.

And then she looks at Jane and her face breaks with childish abandon as she runs up excitedly to throw her arms around her. Jane staggers a little with the weight but holds okay as the exuberant greeting continues.

He remembers very suddenly that this is actually a sixteen year old girl, not the woman he had thought very seriously about making a life with years ago. It feels like a blow but Jeff is made of too stern of stuff to let it topple him.

Her child trails after Ms. Lalonde at a much more sedate pace and then looks up at him. She tilts her head as if seeing something interesting in his face and then looks back to where Ms. Lalonde is busy babbling excitedly.

Her name is Roxy. It seems strange to call her that with the woman he remembers still coveted in his mind.


	37. Chapter 37

**hikary1994 asks: So It Goes #1best I've read! Maybe a POV from Karkat/Trolls on how things were on their end? John made Rose & Dave forget the Trolls, maybe he did the same thing to Karkat and Kanaya? And over time they get small memories about their human friends?**

\----

Karkat goes one moment from trying to ask John what stupid idea he’s gotten in his head now to the next where he is waking up in his hive. He gets up carefully because his body is acting weird and his balance is off and-

He is only a little taller than his coon. And it is filled with something that is _not_ sopor. Karkat stares at it for a bit before reaching in to touch it. The slick gel doesn’t give any kind of tingle to his skin that would indicate the activation of any kind of sleep aid, but it has the right consistency to be inviting if he wanted to nap through midnight-

Which he is _not about to do because what the FUCK_.

He finds his old laptop and every one of his hatefriends is online, even the ones he has the weirdest notion should be _dead_. Everyone returns the same confusion over what the hell happened to them except Terezi. She stays strangely silent on their group memo.

Karkat tries to get her involved and she just signs completely off. Fucking _weird_.

As far as they can tell, they’re all six sweeps old again, Alternia is once more a thing, and the Horrorterrors seem to be completely absent. Explains the lack of sopor, Karkat figures, but then he’s got Gamzee on single chat to make sure he’s not going to lose his goddamn mind because the sopor is gone _again_ -

Which he’s not because apparently it’s as if he’d never gotten addicted to the sopor as a child because it didn’t exist. He’s off from what Karkat knows- what he _remembers_ \- but he seems sane. Mostly. As sane as Gamzee is probably capable of. He does seem to be lacking any murderous intentions, except for a neighbor who’s poking at the edge of his territory.

Karkat lets out a little sigh of relief. He can handle a lot but he would rather _not_ deal with a potentially out of his mind highblood. One problem down, a million others to figure the fuck out.

And then a message comes through from someone who is not his hatefriend but who everyone in the entire species would never dare to block.

> HIC: heeeeey crabbycakes  
>  HIC: 38D  
>  HIC: guess whos queen biznatch of this coddamn empire


	38. Chapter 38

**ANON asks: Idk if you did this yet, but can you basically do like pre chapter one from Rose's POV when she finally realizes that her mom is not her mom anymore?**

\----

Rose knows almost immediately in the subconscious part of her mind that something is wrong. She thinks at first that maybe Mom just had something very good happen at work and that’s why she gets so emotional and keeps grabbing Rose up in hugs like she’s never seen her before.

Except the good mood doesn’t go away. It’s been a week and Mom is still happier than Rose has ever seen her, still ridiculously interested in _Rose_. She keeps asking questions, inviting her to do things together, praising something or other that she likes or adores or…

It takes Rose a week to decide her mother has been body snatched. That makes better sense than anything else she can come up with. 


	39. Chapter 39

**etra-413 asks: OMG OMG FOR SO IT GOES ASDES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEASE DO DAVES POV ON THE NIGHTNARE HE HAD AND WHEN DIRK ENTERS HIS ROOM**

\----

“You know you’re pathetic, right?” Bro says blandly because Dave is so pathetic that Bro literally does not even care.

Dave’s chest is tight and his throat full of words he can’t make come out. He stares out over Houston at sunset, watches a sky full of birds slowly turning darker and darker. The birds start to blur out and blend in with clouds forming on the horizon.

“I don’t know why I bother with you,” Bro says and then he turns to regard Dave, his face completely inscrutable as usual. “Why aren’t you dead yet?”

Dave looks at him and doesn’t know how to answer.

“You’ve got no talent, no worth, and you aren’t even _funny_.”

Dave looks at the setting sun again and even though it doesn’t seem any lower, the world around them is just that much more dark.

And then Bro grabs the back of his shirt and flings him over the edge. Dave flails and tries to catch his hand but he’s too late. He starts to fall and Bro watches it. As Dave drops lower and lower, he sees Bro’s lips split into a smile.

Bro never wanted him around in the first place. Now he won’t be.

And then… the air around him changes. He’s still falling but the wind doesn’t whip so harshly against him, doesn’t rip and tear at his skin or clothes. It almost starts to cradle him. Maybe this isn’t so bad. Maybe it’s even okay.

And then Dave opens his eyes and Bro is looming over him.


	40. Chapter 40

**ANON asks: It would be pretty fun to see a Dave POV after he's gotten his memories back where he puts two and two together and comes to realization that Dirk being into dudes meant that Bro had been as well.**

\----

The thing is, Bro never brought a girl home. He didn’t bring a guy, either, but he very specifically didn’t bring a girl. Dave just always assumed Bro was fucking people at their places instead of his own because Bro was fucking weird territorial like that and barely accepted even Dave there.

So, anyway, Dave never saw any evidence to specify Bro was straight except for his ridiculous machismo attitude and everything, but he’d still assumed it.

Dirk is not straight. Dirk is _hella_ not straight. Dirk is so ridiculously into ass that it should be funny but isn’t.

He notices it in little hints for weeks, months, and then in John’s dad’s car, Dave finds out just who Dirk is so goddamn gay for. It is legit embarrassing. Not the gayness, the gayness for a dude from the Crockbertharlishes. It’s even more embarrassing when Dave meets this guy Jake outside the last battle he remembers, which is embarrassing enough because Jade’s grandpa is even more of an absolute lost cause as John is.

If Dirk’s not straight, it’s a pretty good chance Bro hadn’t been either. And maybe that explains his ridiculous masculinity standards or some self-hating bullshit like that. Dave doesn’t care. Well, he’d like to not care but he kind of does.

He thinks maybe if he had a chance to punch Bro in the face, he would. Not because of the gay thing, but because of the being an asshole and making it harder for Dave to admit the semi-gay thing. Yeah. He thinks a punch in the face is probably the least Bro could let him have. 


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a side note, this one was written before I'd really ironed out the relationship between Ironclaw and Softouch XD

**ANON: POV-wise, what are the adult trolls thinking about all this? Being told to go to this backwater planet without space travel of it's own, with twelve kids, a bunch of whom are obsessed with members of the alien race?**

\----

To be fair, this is _not_ the weirdest mission Ironclaw has ever been on. It’s almost normal, even. The less normal part is his crew, but still. At least it’s not a band of newly conscripted cultists. He… really didn’t like that mission much. It was less of a command than just pointing out the right direction and saying, “Kill.”

Still, the one he’s really surprised about is Softouch because quite frankly, she would be much better suited on a mission to a world they plan to subjugate rather than one the Empress, for whatever reason, wants to actually open a dialogue with.

Usually, Ironclaw takes one or two of his most promising students with him so they can get good, on the job training with how this sort of thing goes. Instead, he has a single, tiny ship and no backup for several _months_ of travel distance; a crew of six unmolted, untried recruits to man the ship; and twelve not even _conscription age_ juveniles that he must not only allow to be part of the process despite having _no_ training whatsoever but also _lead it_. And all the while keep Softouch from killing them.

Which is why he’s sitting very calmly at his desk while she paces in front of him, snarling and whining like the overindulged fool she is.

“Little brat tried to tell me to mind my tone with these ‘humans’- _I’ll mind his goddamn tone right out of his bloodpusher!”_ she snarls, twisting sharply at the end of the room only to pace towards the other, gesturing angrily with her long claws. “‘They’re _delicate_ , Softouch. They’re _sensitive_ , Softouch.’ Anything is sensitive after I’m done with it!”

Her chuckvoodoos start to leak around with vague threat but Ironclaw has thirty sweeps on her. There’s no way he’s going to let some upstart get to him even if she _is_ purple. He settles a bit more comfortably in his chair and just watches her continue to lose it. At least she isn’t threatening to eat anyone right now-

“-stuff his goddamn intentions into his waste tubes and fry them up for dinner,” Softouch snarls and, well, it was nice while it lasted. 


	42. Chapter 42

**primtheamazing asks: Meenah finding the Psiionic?**

\----

She knows what to expect, of course. Everyone knows what Helmsmen are, even if on her own world, they had been volunteers. Or, at least, that’s what everyone said. They were also well taken care of and not permanent installations. Of course, they were only required for the most sophisticated of space craft.

What Meenah finds, however, is not what she’d imagined. The block is dark except for flashes of sparking psionics around various ports. Red and blue glint off the organic cables wrapped around the Helmsman’s body, digging into his flesh. They form a column in the middle of the block and feed out to the rest of the ship. The Helmsman himself is still except for the ragged breathing causing his chest to rise and fall, brushing strands of hair left to hang long for… Well. She’s not really sure how long he’s been installed because she doesn’t have her counterpart’s memories, but it’s been a long time.

She steps closer, brushes one of the floor cables with her foot, and that is what alerts the Helmsman to her presence. He lifts his head and light from the hall glints off his goggles. He twitches, the cables tightening to keep him restrained, and then he says in a voice rough from centuries of screaming, “The fuck are you bulgelicking bitchtith tall ath a hive, turn the lightth on.”

Meenah blinks. And then she asks, “Tuna?!”

His head twitches to one side. “Uh. Thpeaking?”

Aw hell no. 


	43. Chapter 43

**m1sosazai asks: What happened with Terezi? Is she going to get a fix-it too? Or at least a POV in So It Goes: Asides?**

**ANON: Do the trolls look 13 like the kids did at first or did John leave them their regular ages?**

**bibliomatsuri said: If So It Goes POV prompts are still open, then: Terezi wakes up on Alternia, and everything is not okay.**

**calliopocolypse said: Could we get Terezi’s POV when she woke up, if you’re still accepting these?**

\----

This is not where Terezi is supposed to be. She knows that intimately, down to the hold of her soul. She knows the second she wakes up and feels a strange presence in her mind that is not hers or one of the people she knows could even affect her and she tears it free immediately, thinking nothing to whether she even could.

And then she _knows_. So she seeks out everyone else and tears it from them too. And then she sleeps a while because for some reason, that knocks her down harder than it should. She doesn’t know how long she sleeps but when she wakes up, Karkat has already called for them to band together and figure out what happened- Oh, and also the Condesce is on their side now.

Terezi actually finds this less likely than returning to the body of her six sweep old self, but when she finishes reading the group memo, _which the Condesce is part of_ , she can’t not believe it. There’s concrete evidence right here. She would be a fool to ignore it and Terezi is no fool.

The others have already begun into figuring out how to restore them all to the same age. Terezi decides it’s a worthy goal but she lets them handle this stage. She’s soul worn and heart sore and she needs a little time.


	44. Chapter 44

**snowy-scales asks: if you're still doing prompts for the So It Goes side stories... the reactions of Meenah's crew when she brings Shouty McRagegasm Karkat on board and he has his first epic bitchfit?**

\----

Everyone knows not to complain to her because Meenah doesn’t give a shit what they think (or at least not enough for it to matter.) Still, that doesn’t mean she misses the grumbling through her court and the other underlings. She hears rumors come through the works slowly and in pieces, fitting together only when she has enough of them.

She thinks it’s hilarious how worried everyone is by the fact that she personally invited a bunch of pre-conscription kids up to the battleship, much less a _mutant_. And Karcrab being the mouthiest goddamn thing? Oh yeah. It’s perfect. She is enjoying the hell out of every dirty look that passes over her crew’s faces.

It gets worse when the twelve of them actually come to her meeting chamber. Meenah stays above them on a platform and uses every drop of restraint she has not to murder the little heiress immediately. She can see the same desire on Feferi’s face, billions of years of evolution screaming at her to take Meenah down. Feferi’s too small right now, not worth the sport, but someday- Nah. Meenah’s already decided they’re not into that shit anymore.

Around the edges she sees her court fidgeting and whispering to one another, wondering just what is going on. Meenah doesn’t blame them, honestly. It is kind of a weird thing to happen. Still, she’s got things to do.

“Yo, shouty!” she calls and Karkat looks up at her, all tiny and young and still the same ball of indignant rage she remembers. “You guys sick of being tiny shrimps now?”

“That depends on if you’re tired of being a lazy ass fuck in elevation footwear!”

The courtiers all go absolutely silent. Meenah can’t help laughing. Oh man. This is going to be better than she imagined.


	45. Chapter 45

**ANON asks: If you are still doing the prompts ould I ask for Dave's pov when Dirk asks him to come up to the roof up to when he asks if they should strife to try and activate his time powers, pretty please? You're fic is awesome btw >:3**

**tsunamayo-makizushi said: Dave’s POV from the timeline where he fought Dirk on the roof?**

\----

They’ve spent a week trying every boneheaded thing Br- _Dirk_ can think of. None of them have worked and Dave is getting more and more annoyed by it with ever passing day. He doesn’t know what he’s missing, why it isn’t clicking. He needs this to work because people are counting on him.

He has never felt so important in his life.

When Dirk tells him to go get sunscreen, he goes because it’s hot and he’s pretty sure his cheeks are already scorched anyway and he’s thirsty. Definitely not because he’s frustrated. If he takes a few extra minutes to glare at himself in the bathroom mirror, there’s no one to witness it so it doesn’t count.

Dirk looks at him as Dave comes back up the stairs. Dave watches him take a deep breath like he’s trying to steady himself and and feels himself coil up inside. He’s not going to like this-

“How about we try strifing?” Dirk says all at once.

A while ago, Dave asked him him about strifing and Dirk had seemed so put off by the very idea, like he didn’t see the point. Like Dave was so below his level that it wouldn’t matter and wouldn’t do either of them any good. Now Dirk’s looking at him like he still doesn’t want to but like he also thinks they need to.

It makes some sense. Dave needs a push. Nothing else has worked. “I didn’t bring my sword.”

“Might want to go get it.”

Dave hesitates only a few seconds more before he goes to get it. Dirk hadn’t been holding his sword either, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one stashed on the roof somewhere. He gets his sword and then stands in his room. It’s okay. He can do this. It’s like any spar.

Shaking his head, he goes up and Dirk’s on his feet and… The sword in his hand, the confident stance… It’s the wrong stance and Dirk still isn’t wearing a hat, but-

But.

Dave tightens his hold and rushes Dirk before he can think otherwise. And Dirk moves _wrong._ It’s subtly different than Bro, the wrong patterns, the wrong cadence. The wrong everything. Dave misses half the time expecting him to be where he isn’t and by the time he gets used to where Dirk actually keeps going, what he actually keeps doing, he’s so _angry_ at all of this.

Dirk is not his brother and it is so ridiculously obvious he can’t _stand_ it. He goes after Dirk with reckless abandon, daring Dirk to drop the facade and just _do fucking something_ -

“Dave-” Dirk tries and his voice catches like he’s worried but Dave ignores it because _fuck Dirk_ , he just wants to cut him to _pieces_ -

Dirk blocks him a little too hard and Dave stumbles back. His legs catch the edge of the roof. He flips right over it. Dave hears Dirk yell his name, feels Dirk’s fingers brush past his shoe, and then he’s falling. He stares up as Dirk half throws himself after and still misses. He sees the absolute horror on Dirk’s face, clear and open and ridiculously sincere.

Dave has never seen Bro look like that. And then it clicks, the final piece he’s been missing, and suddenly he’s back on the roof staring at himself and Dirk about to make a stupid mistake.

“Might want to-”

“Forget that stupid ass idea,” Dave says before Dirk can. Then he throws his past self off the roof because he can feel it, the churning, yearning absence of closure and he knows he was destined to fall off the roof one way or another. At least this way he won’t have to see Bro’s face like that. 


	46. Chapter 46

**ANON asks: Hello there! First I have to say I love So It Goes, such an amazing story!!! Now I saw the story that was a response to prompts so here's one, don't feel obligated to do it: Jane going to check on Dirk during his 3-week mental hiatus.**

\----

Jane’s already worried when Dirk wouldn’t answer the phone but without the auto-responder to field things for him, this doesn’t seem too strange a thing to be out of contact for a few days. He’d ignored them before for weeks sometimes, embroiled in one project or another.

The worry refuses to go away even though she knows it’s probably nothing. It’s only been a _week_ ; he’s probably busy taking care of Dave. She hopes he hasn’t gotten himself stuck on a project but as days go by, it becomes more and more likely he has. Dirk’s obsessive. He always has been. Dirk is also a _parent_ now, which means he is not really allowed to throw his all into some robot or another. Dave needs him there one hundred percent.

She starts calling every day. Then a couple times. Then nearly every hour. There’s nothing. It’s been nearly three weeks and he is completely out of contact.

She tries to get John to talk to Dave but he blows her off because he is a thirteen year old _idiot_ who has no idea how serious this could be-

Roxy calls her. Dave told Rose something’s wrong. Jane stands still and grim in her kitchen for a few seconds before she thanks Roxy and then hangs up.

“D-Jeff?” she calls, even though it keeps feeling so terribly rude to call him by his (not his) first name, “I need you to book a plane for me. I’m going to Houston and I need to travel immediately.”


	47. Chapter 47

**ANON asks: Idk if it's been done but Dave's pov on trying to get "bro" dirk to hit him**

\-----

Bro is weird. This is not a thing that hasn’t been true before but it is especially true now. Dave watches him like a hawk, trying to read in to what the con is. Because it _is_ a con. It has to be. Bro works in angles and feints. This isn’t his MO but it could be. It probably is.

Dave watches him for two long, excruciating weeks. Bro keeps looking at him like… like… Dave doesn’t know but it makes his insides squish up.

Bro doesn’t order him to the roof even once. He doesn’t flood Dave’s life with puppet ass, even makes a big show of bagging the little bastards up and hauling them out like he suddenly gives a shit how much Dave hates them. He just keeps making him sandwiches all wrong (too much pb & j both, like he’s got no idea how to even do it) and asking him weird questions and making weird faces.

He hasn’t smacked Dave once, even when Dave does things he knows will make it happen.

It’s… Dave doesn’t know why his nerves are so shot. He should be happy about this but he’s not. He’s just- he’s not _scared_ because he’s a Strider, ultimate cool guy and baller, just wait til everyone gets a look at his chill-

But he keeps waiting. And the longer it takes, the longer Bro _doesn’t_ … He feels sick to his stomach and every move Bro makes causes his belly to clench tighter.

He starts messing up and Bro keeps leaving him be and that is so much _worse_.


	48. Chapter 48

**hikary1994 asks: If ur still doing POVs for Asides, how about Jake's POV during ch 33, reaction to Dirk's seizure since he talked to him a bit? Also, love your Not Sequel~ <3**

\----

Jane is okay and this is great! Dirk did it, he kept her alive while Dave fixed this and Jake could not be any happier! It’s going to be okay! He doesn’t know if he helped, but that doesn’t matter because _Jane is okay_ -

Jake turns to congratulate Dirk, giving his shoulder a firmer squeeze because _good job_ \- but Dirk is not looking at him. He’s staring ahead, his gaze strange and unseeing and his face completely _white_. Jake starts saying his name when Dirk sways and suddenly falls into him. It’s only muscle memory that has Jake catching him and lowering him to the floor instead of just dropping him.

There’s a faint tremble at first in Dirk’s limbs and then Dave is shoving Jake aside. Jake scoots himself back a few hand spans and watches as Dave rips off Dirk’s shades and then turns Dirk onto his side like he knows what he’s doing, what Dirk needs. He even drags the hand towels off the oven and shoves them under Dirk’s head as Dirk shakes and jerks without any control at all.

Dave looks about to fall over. His hands are shaking badly as he keeps Dirk from rolling onto his back and his gaze is nearly as glassy. Jake doesn’t know what’s going on and it scares the pants off him, but he can’t let Dave do this alone and Jane’s dad is already taking care of her and-

Jake reaches out to press his hands near Dave’s. Dave looks up at him, tired and wane and almost sick looking.

“It’s okay,” Jake says and for a moment, he almost believes it himself. “It’s okay, I can handle this.”

Dave doesn’t look look he believes him. Jake isn’t surprised. He’s not sure he does, either, but when Dave lets go, Jake turns his attention down to Dirk’s shaking body.

It probably only lasts for a minute or so but it feels like forever. And then Dirk’s laying there all still and half conscious. Like he’s taken a blow. Like he’s had a stroke.

Jake stares back at his blank, listless face. It’s not something he wants to see. He guesses he’s going to have to figure out a way to keep this from happening again.


	49. Chapter 49

**ANON asks: hello! assuming you haven't done it already and i didn't just miss it, could we see dirk's pov when he first starts to realize that bro was abusive?**

\----

At first, he thinks Dave is just shy and cautious by nature. It strikes him as weird, considering what he knows about Dave’s life in his timeline but that Dave had been tossed from one foster home to another until making it big. The kind of bigger than life attitude Dirk observed from the movie reels and newspapers could just be a reaction to that.

It’s three days in when Dirk hears the first of Dave’s nightmares. It’s four days in that Dirk spots the abundant stores of ramen in Dave’s room while Dave is in the bathroom. It’s five days in when Dave mentions something about Dirk “not recording” and disappointing his pervy fans, which Dirk doesn’t understand. It’s six days in the first time Dave flinches like he thinks Dirk is going to hit him when Dirk turns around too fast.

The last one is what gets him thinking. He goes through everything about Dave that he’s observed so far, everything that’s struck him wrong on its own but even more wrong all together. He doesn’t understand it, doesn’t understand Dave, but he is absolutely sure he needs to.

Dirk goes to the internet because he doesn’t know how to fix this on his own or even what the problem actually is. The only people he’s ever spent much significant time with are Jane, Roxy, and Jake and none of them had acted like Dave does. No one in the movies his own Dave had left for him, either. He doesn’t know what to search for so he starts broad.

He rejects the first couple things he finds and then when he’s got more of the same, he goes back and rereads them. He finds more, finds out the right terms he should be searching for and…

This…

This is so much worse than what he was expecting.

He is way, _way_ not prepared. 


	50. Chapter 50

**ANON asks: This is for the fic if you're still taking prompts, i would love to either read roxy's reaction to her de-aging and how she would handle it or striders bros bonding over sharing a room and bunk beds unironically**

\----

Dirk gets the bottom bunk

At first, he thought he wanted the top on. More defensible, better view of both the bed and the window. Good hiding spot when other options didn’t work as well. Dave almost lets him have it with the look that means he’s feeling guilty about something that may or may not be a real thing. Maybe it’s because of that that Dirk takes the bottom one after all.

The mattress is weird under him; the canopy is weirder. He doesn’t sleep well the first couple nights. After four days, Dirk decides to exhaust himself so he’ll just fall asleep, uncomfortable or not. He runs the day through training and rough housing with Jake (at least until Jeff gives them both a stern talking to about appropriate times for weapons,) and by the time he drags himself to bed, he’s nearly asleep on his feet.

He stops in the doorway because something is weird. It takes him a moment to realize that someone has stuffed an extra set of sheets under the top mattress of the bunk bed so that they hang down and close off the bottom space almost completely. It looks like a cave and suddenly it is one hundred times more attractive. Dirk starts over and then glances up at the top bunk where Dave is already tucked in, his back to the rest of the room. He thinks of saying something and then doesn’t. Dirk climbs into his bed cave and tugs the barrier closed behind him.

It’s so dark but weirdly cozy. He curls up around a pillow and just basks in how nice and safe it feels.

“Thanks,” he says to the dark, not expecting any kind of response.

“Uh-huh,” comes the quiet, delayed response a while later.


	51. Chapter 51

**obstinaterixatrix asks: if you're still up for prompts, how about Jade (+ others?) grilling Rose & Dave for deets about the trolls they seem awfully preoccupied with? :V**

\----

Most everyone is thrilled when the Trolls’ message comes through. There’s a happy spam of excitement and anticipation, even for the kids who hadn’t had a lot of contact with them in the first place. 

Some of them are a little more excited than others. Jade observes this mostly because it is the _most obvious thing ever_. She thinks it’s cute how Dave tries to not admit the way he keeps counting down the days. They might not have a specific date but three perigees gives them a close enough reckoning and Dave spends a _lot_ of time checking the calendar Rose put up on the fridge.

Rose has done absolutely nothing to hide how much she wishes time would speed up already. Which is also cute in its own way. Jade’s have a lot of fun watching it all.

More fun to poke at Dave, of course. Rose doesn’t twitch the way he does or try to behind no homo (which is so funny, Jade can barely ever keep a straight face once he starts into it. And honestly, the only reason it’s so funny is because Dave means exactly none of it.) Rose is all the homo all the time. So, yeah, Jade finds Dave to be a lot more entertaining in that respect.

“How many days?” she asks in passing about once a week just because she can.

“Forty-six,” Dave answers automatically and then flinches like he totally didn’t mean to say that, the doofus.

“I can’t wait to watch the way you’ll slow-mo run to each other!”

“Oh yeah,” he manages, recovering with speed as always. “That shit will legit go down. Sappy musical background and a field of tall grass already booked. My broship deserves the absolute best.”

“And kissing, too, right?” Jade prods and watches the way color rises up along Dave’s cheeks. It’s so cute how he still gets so embarrassed, especially with the kind of things he talks about so much!

“No homo,” he says even as he nods. 


	52. Chapter 52

**ANON asks: SIG prompt, because i'm definitely a sucker for the plot of a young adult novel, Karkat's reaction to getting Dave on the line. ty if you choose to indulge this sappy trashlord im a sucker for your au**

\-----

They’ve been waiting for some twenty hours for the humans to set up contact again. Karkat’s napped on and off between bouts of pacing. He’s not even sure why he’s worried. Of course Dave is fine. Dave is always fine. Dave’s perpetual state is absolutely fine.

He checks the receiver interface. Nothing yet. He goes back to pacing.

“Would you theriously jutht calm down already?” Sollux grumbles from the swivel chair he’d stolen from Karkat earlier. He pushes himself away and pulls himself back from the console with his foot, bored out of his skull. There’s a half written packet of more random words to throw the humans’ way when he cares enough to send it. Which he apparently doesn’t because Sollux is an _asshole_.

“Fuck you, I’m-”

The interface beeps. The humans are requesting contact. Karkat nearly teleports jerking so fast back to it as Sollux futzes with the console. It’s always such a shit problem getting connected the right way to the humans’ weird technology. Karkat doesn’t get a lot of why (which is galling) but as long as it works, he doesn’t care.

The moment he sees the light indicating they’ve established a connection, he immediately calls out, “Dave?!”

“Yeah, man,” Dave says and Karkat suddenly crumples as relief floods him. Thankfully, the (not swivel) chair is waiting for him to collapse into. “Took you guys long enough. Did you make a wrong turn at Jupiter?”

“ _Dave_ ,” Karkat snarls, layering it with every stupid, pathetic, embarrassing expression of love he can. Sollux makes a face like he’s gagging but Karkat gives exactly _no fucks_ right now. Dave is _alive_ and _okay_ and Karkat is _so not fucking crying_. “You stupid, dense, idiotic- You open with- Fuck you! Fuck your goddamn face, you bulge monkey!”

Sollux hands him something to wipe his face. Karkat doesn’t even check to see if it’s something gross or embarrassing before he uses it. 


	53. Chapter 53

**ANON asks: So Aradia could understand the humans bc she went godtier and got the gift of gab thing right? Maybe for a drabble thingy her perspective on the all-important convo, since she's the only one completely in the know and was probably laughing her morbid ass off, just a tiny bit**

\-----

“You remember the connection with the humans is open, right? _Boys_.”

Both Sollux and Karkat stare at her for a few seconds before swearing. Aradia shakes her head

“Hello?” a human says. Aradia doesn’t know why it’s someone she doesn’t know but she’s willing to roll with it for now. Karkat looks at the speaker grumpily. She can understand though.

“Hello there! Hi!” Aradia says for him as cheerfully as possible. Might as well make a good impression. She drags her husktop up beside it and boots up. “I’ll write the translation, you talk to them.”

“Uh.” Karkat frowns, unsure, but plows through soon enough. “Hello?”

“It’s working!” another human says. There’s several seconds of quiet after, like they’re trying to figure through something, then-

“My name is Jermaine Moreau of the United Nations. I’ve been chosen to start first contact-”

“Where is Dave?” Karkat snarls out before Aradia can finish writing it up because of _course_ he has no patience.

The humans seem startled. “That sounds like a personal name to me, but-”

“Where’s Dave?!”

Aradia admits she’s kind of worried, too, but maybe Karkat should start figuring out other ways to solve his problems than _yelling at them._

“Oh shit, it’s getting mad.”

“Who is Dave?”

“What do you mean ‘who is Dave?’ WHERE IS DAVE!?” Karkat shouts, getting more bothered by the second.

“Uh, my name is David,” a human who is not Dave says and then Karkat just starts cussing. There is certainly a time and a place for this but Aradia’s pretty sure screaming at the humans right now is not going to help them.

“Would you be quiet? You’ll scare the humans!” she tells him but Karkat’s too caught up to listen.

“WHERE IS DAVE?!”

That’s it. “Damn it, be quiet! You’re not allowed to talk anymore. Go SIT. Sollux!”

Karkat stares at her like she’s just stabbed him but enough dirty looks and he slumps off a bit, enough for Sollux to slide in his chair with a lazy, “Sure, got it.”

He fiddles with the receiver a bit, then asks, “Tho, where ITH Dave?”

“We don’t know who you mean,” the human says, sounding a little irritated and also regretful. “Dave is a common name in a lot of the world-”

“DAVE IS NOT COMMON, YOU INCOMPETENT NOOKSUCKING SHITHOLE!”

Her head is sort of starting to hurt. “Sit DOWN, Karkat. Important discussions are happening now.”


	54. Chapter 54

**ANON asks: What happens to The Psiioniic after Meenah sees him and what does he think about everything that's happening?**

**ANON: …..hows sig!mituna doing? being a helmsman must, uh, suck. and does he still have a traumatic brain injury/did being a helmsman produce similar effects to his other-bodies injuries?**

**ANON: Hello, i am a big fan of your So it Goes fics :D I have a prompt too if you have time: What happens after “Meenah finding the Psiionic?” chapter?**

\----

It takes them days to get him out of the rig. Mituna spends most of it cracking jokes and screaming. The pain doesn’t ever end, just ebbs up and down as the techs do one thing or another because they literally have _no idea_ how to even do this. They _were_ saying Helmsmen should stay in their Helmsblocks but then Meenah started sitting in and they were too afraid to question her orders.

Mituna figures he should feel pretty lucky that she wants him alive but right now he’s a little preoccupied with just how much this fucking _hurts_. He tries to concentrate on her dumb jokes and stories, tries to respond with his own, but his attention gets splintered and broken up and shattered beyond recognition over and over and over.

When the last connection finally gets pulled free, only then does he actually pass out. Mituna wakes up clean and dressed in a respite block he doesn’t recognize. It smells sterile and ignored, just like he feels. Well, actually he mostly feels _sore_ and _empty._ His head should be full of information being pumped in and out, of commands waiting to be followed and others to be sent, details to be collated into an understood mass. It’s quiet and he’s…

He sits up. His body responds without short circuiting, even if he’s shaking and it takes so much effort. It feels like he hasn’t moved himself in centuries. A bone deep soreness has sunk into every cell. He’s so tired even though he just woke up. And his head…

His head is empty and he can think in _straight lines_. His attention keeps getting distracted by every new little thought or sensation but… His thoughts are making sense to him and he thinks if he tried, they would probably make sense to someone else, too.

Mituna starts pushing himself up and startles when he sees his own hand because his skin is post-molt dark. He turns his hand in front of him, studies the long fingers and his freshly trimmed claws, the way the proportion isn’t quite what he remembers. He reaches up into his hair and his horns are too long, freshly polished but still brittle enough he can feel it on his fingertips. This…

He doesn’t know what to think of it. He gets to his feet, sways because his center of balance is too high and his legs too long but doesn’t fall. His body is responding to him. He doesn’t know what that means. His thoughts are still fractured and quicksilver changing but they make sense. _He_ makes sense.

He needs to find Latula because if anyone can help him figure all of this out, it’s her. 


	55. Chapter 55

**theenglishmanwithallthebananas asks: if you're still doing prompts, could we see all the trolls reuniting happily and then eridan's there and there's just palpable awkward.**

\----

It takes them only a few days after everyone’s memories come back to actually meet up. Karkat arranges it because of course he does and then they all make their merry way to Kanaya’s because she lives the center most of the whole group.

Karkat gets there first so he can help her prepare. They clasp arms and share a look that means absolutely everything. In that one look, they share the enormity of what they’re experiencing right now, of the strangeness of their six sweep old bodies, of the comfort that they aren’t alone. She’s not his moirail but Karkat thinks she could have been a good one if she was. He wouldn’t have deserved it, but… It’s nice to think about. The look lingers until they both break free at the same time and get to making things ready.

They don’t know how long all of them will stick around or when they’ll manage to fix everything but they’ll figure that out later.

Aradia and Feferi show up at roughly the same time. They’re all smiles and hugs and a wellspring of affection Karkat barely knows what to think about. Terezi’s next. She’s thoughtful quiet, off in ways Karkat knows are red flags, but he isn’t sure how to fix it. Then Equius and Nepeta show up hand in hand and there’s Vriska and Sollux and Tavros soon after. Kanaya’s hive is big enough for them even if it feels like a tight fit. Trolls aren’t meant to be in close quarters, after all.

When Gamzee shows up, calm in ways Karkat has never seen him, he’s careful to take up as little room as possible and sits off to the side of Kanaya’s main block so the rest of them can work on their meet and greet. His eyes keep trailing to one or another of them but he doesn’t even try to engage them.

The last one to show is Eridan. He knocks, surprisingly, and when Karkat answers, he has the decency to look uncomfortable.

“Hey, Kar,” he says, smiling awkwardly like he’s trying to endear himself.

“Hey, fuckstick,” Karkat answers. Behind him, things have gotten quieter the way they did when Gamzee showed, but Karkat feels a great level of intense attention directed their way.

“So, are you gonna let me in?” Eridan says after a little while, glancing past Karkat and then quickly refocusing.

“I think that’s up to someone else.” Karkat shifts back from the door, glances Feferi, Sollux, and Kanaya’s way. He’d done the same thing for Nepeta and Equius when Gamzee showed, the same thing for Tavros when it was Vriska. None of them killed _him,_ after all.

There’s a pinched look on Feferi’s face, like she wants to say no but can’t bring herself to. Sollux just seems bored. He shrugs a shoulder as if it didn’t even matter. Kanaya, though. She gets up and heads over to stand by Karkat. Her eyes take in the whole of Eridan, picking him apart bit by bit and finding him absolutely wanting.

“There are no more dream bubbles,” she says and it comes off as a warning more than anything else.

“Yeah, I know, but-”

“If you step out of line this time, _you will not come back_ ,” she growls and Karkat feels himself tensing up as if he were the target. Eridan goes quiet, staring at her. He opens his mouth to respond and then doesn’t. His fingers twitch and clench up and then he just nods.

“Okay,” he says, quiet and low and reeking of an oddly offended kind of shame.

“Feferi?” Karkat calls back. “Sollux?”

“If he promises to behave,” Feferi says at the same time Sollux mutters, “Why do I care again?”

It’s good enough. They let Eridan inside and he goes to sit next to Gamzee. Karkat figures that’s for the best. 


	56. Chapter 56

moonaft asks: For the asides, could we get the POV of one of the trolls dead at the beginning of the 3 year journey (preferably Eridan) when they all start to remember?

\----

Eridan’s last memory of being alive is getting cut in half and dying almost instantly. There’s a few seconds while he was bleeding out and waiting for his thinksponge to stop working, but for all intents and purposes, that’s the end.

He spent a long time in the dream bubbles after that but things felt different there. Not quite real. He doesn’t really care much about what happened there.

When his memories come rushing back to him, he realizes that being home in his own hive should be weird. He doesn’t understand how he got there or why it seems like the game hadn’t happened. It’s…

Well. He doesn’t know what but he looks at his trollian and Feferi has blocked him even though she was just talking to him an hour ago when they didn’t remember anything was weird.

He’s not entirely sure he really wants to remember. 


	57. Chapter 57

**ANON asks: Just read the SIG prompts that you put on ao3 and I loved them~! They are sooooooo good, I really do enjoy your writing. <3 If you are still doing requests by the time you get this and if it isn't too much of a bother, could I ask for Dave's POV from chapter 50? When he makes the cave bed for Dirk and why he decided to do that? please :3**

\----

Dirk isn’t sleeping well. It’s the little things that really tell him, like the way it takes Dirk an extra second or two to think about things, the way his eyes take a little longer to focus. Dirk’s no stranger to insomnia or work fueled sleep deprivation.

Doesn’t mean Dave has to _like_ it. He lets it go on for a few days, consulting the internet for ideas but coming up with nothing. He knows Dirk won’t actually talk to him about it because they are both shit at that, but…

The cave is a random one off idea he gets that is supposed to be a joke. Like, if he can’t sleep, at least this lets him have a flashlight and shit without bothering Dave or like maybe he could pretend he was in some huge ass four poster bed or something and-

Well. It’s supposed to be a joke but when Dave gets up the next morning and Dirk is _actually asleep_ … Well.

Ten sibling points to Dave.


	58. Chapter 58

ANON asks: If you're still taking suggestions, it would be interesting to see Dirk's perspective when he first wakes up in Bro's body. Keep up the awesome job, I think you're an excellent writer! (◕‿◕✿)

\----

Dirk opens his eyes and immediately jerks up from his futon only to crash down onto the floor when his feet aren’t quiet where he expects them to be. He spends a few seconds laying there until he realizes how absolutely filthy the carpet is under his cheek and then he’s up again, sitting on the edge of the futon.

His clothes are weird, his limbs are weirder. He looks at his hands and his callouses are all wrong. They’re not quite built up the way they should be in the right spots, too built in the wrong ones, like these hands have been using a sword entirely wrong.

He doesn’t know what the fuck is going on but he manages to stand the next time. His body has some idea of how to work itself, it’s his head getting int he way as usual. He looks around. It’s his apartment but not, all wrong, decorated with things that aren’t his. Dirty.

So fucking dirty.

He trips over a beer can and while cursing under his breath, he decided fuck it. First thing’s first, he’s getting this place _clean._

He doesn’t even realize he’s not alone here until Dave suddenly speaks while he’s scrubbing the kitchenette floor. And that is. Uh. Awkward.


	59. Chapter 59

**calliopocolypse asks: Okay, here's what I've been wanting to ask ever since Roxy brought it up. Can we get a POV from Callie?**

\----

She is… alive. This is what she knows for sure. There’s not much else that is undeniably true. Plenty of things are possibly true or could become true, but not much else _definitely_ true.

She’s not entirely sure of her own state but she is aware. She seems to be more aware more of the time as more time goes by, but that’s entirely subjective.

Well, she’s thinking better now, anyway. She thinks she might be actually awake any day now.


	60. Chapter 60

**ANON asks: your not sequel gives me life, like, twice or thrice now. thank you for the not sequel! if you still taking prompt, we would like to see from dad's pov about all this... poor man, bless his soul.**

\----

Jeff is so ridiculously embarrassed by everything coming out of Dave’s mouth right now. He’s not sure what he expected, honestly. Dave is about the most irreverent person Jeff has ever met.

He can’t believe that kid is _bragging_ about _fornicating_ with aliens. What did he do to deserve this…? He must have done something ridiculously awful in a past life. That is the only explanation.


	61. Chapter 61

**ourhiddensquid asks: Could you do Dadberts reaction to taking care of eight kids?**

\----

Teenagers are like raccoons. They eat everything and leave a mess in their wake. Jeff thought he was ready for this. He had absolutely _no idea_ what he was getting himself into.

Thankfully, none of the children have caught on. If Jeff has anything to do with it, they _never will_.


	62. Chapter 62

**mentallydisturbedbox asks: I love your fic to pieces! Along with your ficlet pov-swaps, and I want to know what Meenah does after Mituna's actions in the last ficlet about the trolls, if it's not too much to ask?**

\----

“MEENAH!”

She startles a bit, twisting around, and then nearly topples with a bigger mass of gangly troll bashes right into her. Meenah catches him and steadies herself in one movement. The techs had warned her Mituna might have some trouble walking after being blocked for so long, but really? He had to crash into her?

“Water you eeling about now, Tuna?”

He keeps his hands on her shoulders as he straightens, all smiles and clear eyes glowing unfamiliarly with adult yellow. “I’m awake!”

And talking pretty clearly, that’s new. “Believe me, I am ridic happy for you but-”

“No, no, no,” he interrupts, leaning even closer than he already is, a manic look crossing his face. “ _In my head!”_

“What-” She stops and looks at him closer before her own eyes go wide. “Holy _shrimp_.”

Mituna’s grin somehow widens until it looks like his head might split in two. “I don’t know what those bulgesniffing humans did but the MAN is BACK! FUCK YEAH!”

Oh _shell_ , she’s going to _cry_. Except not because Meenah is so much better than that even if she is ridiculously happy for him and relieved and confused and all these other things and-

“So now we need to go get my skater gurl,” Mituna concludes matter-of-factly. “Like _yesterday_.”

Well. It’s a good enough excuse for her to get the hell out of court intrigues for a while. 


	63. Chapter 63

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops totally missed this one

**our-happygirl500-fan asks: If your still doing prompts could you maybe have John talk to the other beta's about the previous timelines, you know the matriorb dying, the timeline where )(IC won, the timeline where bad things happened to Jade and Rose. I feel like maybe it would be good for John to talk about what happened more and also I feel like Jade, Dave and Rose should know why John did what he did if it could be from Jade, Dave or Rose's perspective that would be really cool but only if you want to**

**detectivesassistantdoylekuroba said: Ok the hints at what happened in other timelines sound super traumatic so could we have John having nightmare or something about the other timelines please**

**Anonymous said: If John has PTSD from previous timelines could we see it affecting him? Like maybe he has a flash back or a panic attack? Bonus points if the other kids start noticing how badly John has been messed up by previous timelines**

**Anonymous said: If your still doing prompts could you please do something where the other characters realise John has PTSD from previous timelines**

—-

Jeff doesn’t ask John any more about what happened in the other timelines. He watches instead, stays aware of the little things he remembers about his son from before all these things began happening that he couldn’t explain and the way things have changed. John is definitely different than before even as he tries desperately to forget that.

Perhaps it is the part of Jeff that is actually Jedd that has given him the patience to wait and watch and not step in too early. Jeff isn’t sure, mostly because the line separating the two of them has been getting fuzzier with every day. He’s rarely singularly one or the other these days.

In any case, Jeff watches John. He waits, sees the strain of trying to be normal bear down harsh and heavy on John’s shoulders, and knows that the time will come when John needs him to be a solid support at his shoulder. He’s not sure how long it will take but it sure it will happen.

The other children, for the most part, don’t seem to notice. There are hints Jeff catches here and there that one or another of them might have an inkling but John is very good at laughing things off and distracting any further study of his mental state. John has always swung with the punches so very well.

When it does come to a head, it catches Jeff by surprise. John has been fine all month, all week, all morning, and then quite suddenly, he isn’t. Jeff isn’t there to see the trigger take place. He’s only aware of it when Rose comes to fetch him to John and Jake’s room.

The first thing Jeff notices is the way John is flopped on his bed, limbs pulled in close and tight to his body, his back to the door. He barely even twitches as Jeff steps inside and goes to sit at the edge of the bed. The other children are downstairs or outside, leave the two of them to relative quiet. Jeff reaches over and rests his hand on John’s shoulder. John flinches but doesn’t turn around.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Jeff promises, keeping his voice soft and gentle. “You don’t have to say anything, but if you do it will not go farther than this room.”

John doesn’t answer at first. He stays still and tense, like an animal backed into a corner and just waiting for things to go south. Jeff is patient. He has no problem waiting until John is ready.

It takes a while. And then John sucks in a shuddering breath and sniffs wetly. Jeff doesn’t know if he’s crying or just congested but he gives John’s shoulder a little squeeze.

“I’m okay,” John says.

“You’re not, but that’s all right. You don’t have to be.”

Slowly, John turns over onto his back and looks up at him. His eyes are a little red, a little watery, but he isn’t actually crying. It’s little comfort. Jeff thinks he has more than ample reason to cry but John has never been that demonstrative of his sorrow or fear. He could get hopping mad about the silliest things and terribly excited, but he rarely cried or even frowned all that much.

“I want to be okay,” John says and it is probably the most sincere thing he has said in his life. Jeff nods, patiently letting John take his time in expressing himself. “I keep… Sometimes they say something or do something and then I just… Remember stuff. It doesn’t _matter_ anymore but…”

“John,” Jeff says sternly, giving him a look that has John squirming uncomfortably. “It _does_ matter. You’ve been though a lot of very disturbing experiences. They’re bound to have affected you and that is perfectly normal.”

John stares up at him with a clear, desperate want to believe him. “I’m normal?”

“You’re normal,” Jeff assures him, patting his hand. “At least in this aspect. Your lack of respect for my _baking_ , on the other hand…”

John makes a face and then starts snickering. It quickly degenerates into full laughter and Jeff smiles even though there is a slight hysterical edge to it. John has things to work through in his own way and Jeff with be there every step of the way. 


	64. Chapter 64

gsunny6 asks: Best asides prompt out there: the BAMF Waffle House Waitress in any moment she is present.

\----

Stace is entirely aware that her job means dealing with packs of drunks at 2 a.m., grumpy old folks on Sundays after church that don’t tip, and the occasional people with fake service dogs that haven’t been trained for public settings. She doesn’t technically _have_ to keep working there but it’s comfortable and she likes it despite the problems. No matter that her mother keeps harping on her to put that college degree to work for her, Stace likes the life she’s got and the job she works.

She is less happy with the horse standing in the doorway. There’s no rider and it is _so fucking huge_. Hiding behind the counter, Patty’s whimpering something awful while Randy looks to be daydreaming like he always does when there’s some animal around (he _did_ get another dog after Mr. Strider’s gift, but they at least convinced him to move out of that shed on his pa’s property and get himself a proper house with a yard for the beasts). Stace has been shocked still for several seconds while the horse stares at her with those big eyes and its big face and _why are horses so large_.

A little girl in booth six squeals and the horse looks at her, breaking Stace’s stupor.

“P-tat, get animal control on the phone and tell them to hurry,” she says as she looks over the horse more critically. It’s well groomed and well fed with a good, glossy coat and clear eyes, so she’s sure it’s owned. No brand or saddle and tack but it’s been shoe’d so maybe there’s some kind of registration for it or maybe it’s microchipped. She can’t see anything special about it and it seems a little small for horse standards (but still entirely too FUCKING HUGE) so maybe it’s still a baby, or at least a young adult.

She tilts her head to look past it, just to make sure there’s not a stupid rider laying with a broken neck in the parking lot and the horse turns back to her. Son of a bitch.


	65. Chapter 65

**ANON asks: Are you still doing prompts for alternate points of view for So It's Going? If you are, do you think you could show us how one of the linguists are reacting to this teenager coming in and just chatting up ALIENS like he's on the phone?**

**\----**

David has never been more jealous of a skinny, handsome blond in his life, and he has been jealous of _tonnes of them._ The fact that the kid’s name is _Dave_ just puts salt in the wound. This is ridiculous. David is being ridiculous. He knows this so he says nothing to keep from drawing attention to just how ridiculous this is.

Doesn’t keep him from staring jealously at how easy Dave chats at the aliens like they’re old friends.

Ridiculous. David wants a refund on this movie. 


	66. Chapter 66

**ANON asks: Maybe Jermaine trying to figure out how the kids know the trolls?**

**\----**

The children are not cooperating. It doesn’t surprise him but Jermaine had hoped they would understand the gravity of the situation and perhaps be more accommodating than children usually are. His hopes have been completely obliterated.

Still. It doesn’t stop him from prying, from trying to find gaps in their words where he might possibly coerce more out. It’s never been something he’s good at (Léa hadn’t been able to teach him her ways) but he tries anyway because the fact of the matter is if aliens are kidnapping people for real and not just in the minds of heavily disturbed individuals, he needs to keep that from happening.

Children are annoyingly self destructive, but he hates the idea of anyone being harmed by possibly dangerous aliens and their potentially dangerous experiments, even if the only outcome he’s witnessed has been an ear for language. Even that much points to some very distressing tampering of the brain.

He has very good intentions. The children are uncompromisingly adverse to letting him help them. For the umpteenth time, he wishes his wife were here to work her magic.


	67. Chapter 67

**ANON asks: i think terezi probably really wants to speak with john to understand what he did, i don't know how much of her seer of mind powers are working but she probably has a lot of questions.**

**\----**

When they show up in the warehouse Dirk and Roxy scoped out the day before, John’s first inclination is to make sure Jade hadn’t collapsed again like she did pulling them out of the UN. He doesn’t get the chance. One second, John’s turning to find her, the next he’s on the ground and his mouth hurts.

“What the hell?!” he shrieks out, twisting onto his back to stare up at- wait, _Terezi?_ How could she _possibly_ be mad at him right now-

“So we are going to have a talk about turfs,” she says, looking down her nose at him from on high as light glints off her razor sharp teeth in a way that has to be deliberate. “Specifically, _staying off mine, flyboy!”_

He has no idea what she’s talking about except two minutes later he knows exactly what and wow, ungrateful much?


	68. Chapter 68

**ANON asks: what are dave and roses explanations for meeting the trolls face to face before anyone official did?**

**\---**

“So how’d you meet your space boyfriend?“ the technician guy, Mason, asks out of the blue and Dave just kind of looks at him because wow, he was half convinced the guy only spoke when he had to and always with a rod up his ass. Seems when the big boss isn’t around, Mason’s just a regular dude.

“Oh, you know. Played a video game, destroyed the world, became gods, and killed the devil. The usual. I am a classy dude that rocks classy dates.”

“Aliens play MMOs? That is a weirdly comforting though. Just a slob like one of us, right?”

“Just a stranger on a bus trying to make his way home,” Dave confirms with all seriousness that leaves Mason smirking at him. Dave likes this guy. He’s not nearly as entertaining as the head guy but he’s cool.

“So, what, true love at first digital sight?”

“Oh yeah. Check it, there were like rose petals and doki dokis everywhere, man. Some sappy fucker pulls out a violin, ladies all around swooning like it was some kind of rom com ending with the best friend getting her man. Don’t lose your head, Ariel; Princess Whoeverthefuck is the sea witch and you just won two tickets to paradise.”

It’s not his best work but it has Mason snickering and distracted as they start going into ripping Disney movies while waiting for the communications to reestablish. 


	69. Chapter 69

**madamehardy asks: I own a Note 7. If I die, please write Jermaine inadvertently walking in on Karkat and Dave during sex. Thank you.**

**\----**

“-and see if there’s any-”

Two boys look up from a pile of limbs on the floor of the storage closet. Only one is human but they share an identical look of surprise. There is more peach and gray skin showing than Jermaine had ever wanted to see.

He glares at them as red raises on Dave’s cheeks and Karkat groans, hiding his face against Dave’s (naked) shoulder. At least they’re only shirtless- he hopes. He can’t actually see much of Karkat’s lower body and he is not going to _try_.

“This is no place for such conduct. If you would kindly _teleport yourselves home_ , I _might_ not inform your guardian,” he growls out before shutting the door firmly.


	70. Chapter 70

**theenglishmanwithallthebananas asks: SIG prompt: John and Terezi shamelessly blackflirting, and the UN people freaking out because holy crap did negotiations turn sour here? are the aliens going to kill us because of this stupid kid?**

**\----**

That child is closer to ruining these talks than Dave Strider could even dream. Jermaine watches with horror as John and the alien named Terezi continue sniping at each other. They’ve been at it for the last ten minutes. Every attempt at calming or separating them has failed.

“-can’t even TELL if it’s-”

“-and ANOTHER THING-”

Jermaine pinches the bridge of his nose and glances towards Ironclaw who seems as exasperated as he is. He at least isn’t making a move to end for the day and there’s no offense to his face. Jermaine’s grateful at least that he is taking this as youthful ridiculousness rather than anything else.

“Can you guys just get a room already?” Dave drawls out. Both John and Terezi stop to stare at him with outrage.

“It’s kind of, uhh, _obvious_ that you’re compatible black. Just, um, admit it already,” Tavros adds and then the two start denying and protesting and Jermaine realizes this is a teen romance novel again and wants go bury himself in paperwork for a while. 


	71. Chapter 71

**Anonymous asks: prompt: mituna and meenah get tunas skater gurl "like yesterday"**

**\----**

Apparently, the Empress isn’t supposed to land on-planet but Meenah gives exactly no shits what’s proper or traditional because traditional around here is a code word for really shitty ideas. Meenah’s not really sure what the fuck was going through her alt’s head sometimes. Why use ultimate power to murder the fuck out of a bunch of people when you could instead finance a kickass pirate ship and plunder the depths. Or, like, anything else.

She’s still kind of enjoying the way people in her court flinch if she looks at them for saying stupid things like “we have to expand the empire” and “beef up defenses on the sector seven front” and “what do you mean no more culling grubs and wigglers?”. They just keep saying stupid shit to deserve being treated like stupid guppies.

Anyway. It’s nice to get away from it all for a little while! She likes her big ass battleship just fine but sometimes you gotta be free and unencumbered. There’s still like ten guys escorting her and Mituna planet side but eh. They lose their tail within an hour because wow, these guys really under estimate her.

Mituna is so excited that he keeps forgetting to keep his psionics in check so little sparks keep going off around his horns. They’re following his “fucking TRUE LOVE senses” and a couple vague whispers about some adults spotted land side. Considering the half assed descriptions, it could be anyone.

They find Latula sitting in a tree fort with about half a dozen baby dragons, in a body that is definitely not hers but that doesn’t stop Mituna from screeching at the top of his lungs for her.

The less said about their frankly embarrassing reunion, the better. Meenah spends most of it playing with a little pink dragon and pretending she isn’t hearing some pretty desperate face sucking. 


	72. Chapter 72

**Anonymous asks: SIG prompt where it's the kids pov when Jermaine goes to get dave**

**(It was actually not Jermaine! But here you go.)**

**—-**

The two men in nice suits that Rose predicted show up in the evening. One is tall and boring, the other has long hair in two braids like Willie Nelson.

“Is your guardian, Mr. Egbert, here?” the boring one asks as soon as Dave opens the door (they’re coming for him, according to Rose, so he figures he should be the one to greet them).

“Nah, my sugar daddy’s still at work getting the bacon so we don’t starve to death in a ditch,” Dave says dryly, making the boring guy’s eye twitch a bit while the long haired one smirks. “So I’m gonna shut the door now ‘cause stranger danger and all that shit.”

He starts to, even though he has no intention of actually doing it, just to see the boring guy’s eyes widen.

“Wait! Wait, this is a matter of national security, we’re-”

“Just fucking with you, man,” Dave says. “Daddy Egbert’s in the kitchen making some bitchin’ scones or something. Idek, it’s all basically the same thing. A smorgasbord of delicately baked calorie bombs to put meat on my womanly figure. I think he’s doing it on purpose, the chubby chasing perv.”

Boring’s eye twitches while he tries to figure out if he should take Dave seriously but Willie’s pink with restrained laughter. Dave decides he likes that one. Maybe he’ll even ask his name instead of making up something stupid. 


	73. Chapter 73

**Anonymous asks: SIG wise, can I pleeeaaaase get something with Nepeta?**

**\----**

So the first time Nepeta listened to Karkat gush about Dave had been painful but watching the two of them eyefuck while waiting for an appropriate time to beg off to an empty room is just kind of… embarrassing. She has the notion of keeping them occupied out of spite but she isn’t really _that_ destroyed over their relationship after a few months of getting used to it before they arrived on Earth. She did just want Karkat to be happy (with her, purrably). 

Still, she flops over Equius’ shoulders when the two of them finally skitter off for makeouts as if no one had noticed (efurryone had) and picks at his hair to distract herself.

“Desist,” Equius orders, halfassed in the way that means she can ignore it because he doesn’t really mean it. She knocks her horn lightly against his unbroken one by way of answer and he just sighs. “Very well. If you must.”

“I must! It is of utmost impurrtance that the mighty huntress grooms you,” she says, continuing to smooth back his hair and finger comb out the few knots. Equius’ hair is so silky and nice, despite how much he sweats.

“For your continued emotional health?”

“The _most_.”

Equius gives a little grunt and makes no move to dislodge her from his back or his hair. It helps having something to distract herself with. 


	74. Chapter 74

**amazingspaceship asks: So I just binge read So It Goes/First Contact, and if you're still doing POV requests, how about either Rose/Kanaya's first conversation from Kanaya's POV, or the kids being contacted by the government people at their house from anyone's perspective? (Your fic is really good!!!)**

**\----**

“It’s _my turn_ ,” Kanaya hisses in Karkat’s hear duct because it’s _Rose_ and he got to talk to _Dave_ so it’s her turn.

Karkat waves her off but he wraps up quickly and then moves so she can take his place. And immediately, she loses all elegance with the sudden rush of excitement at hearing Rose’s voice over the line and bursts out, “Rose, my darling, I’m so happy!”

“Kanaya,” Rose breathes and… _oh._ Her voice is distorted by the feed but it’s _her_ and she’s _perfect_ and Kanaya is so very happy. She’s probably glowing.

“Rose, are you all right? How are you?”

“I’m all right, I assure you. I’ve missed you.” _Rose missed her_. Kanaya knows she’s being silly but she’s so relieved right now. It feels almost like the first time Rose slept in her arms, soft and gentle and lovely.

“I missed you so much,” Kanaya gushes out. “I want to hold you again so badly.”

There, a soft laugh that rings like tiny bells and makes Kanaya so warm inside.

“My apologies, Mr. Moreau. Kanaya, perhaps we will continue this in private once you’ve landed?”

Is she kidding right now? Kanaya rolls her eyes. “The adult human can wait. I have my darling now; we’ll resume good manners later.”

And then Rose is giggling again and Kanaya sighs, completely besotted all over again.


	75. Chapter 75

**moonaft asks: SIG aside: Karkat's (or one of the other twelve's) POV when they go to Meenah's battleship**

**\----**

The adults are huge and scary and keep emitting the worst pheromone mixes that make his skin crawl and his blood pusher clench but that just makes Karkat glare at them even more. He’s got Empress protection; no one is going to touch a hair on his head. Not that he wouldn’t bluster up without it, but that does make it easier to justify.

Karkat strides down the corridors like he owns the place because why not, he fucking deserves this. The adults always stare and sneer as he passes but he gives exactly no shits because the empress approves of his mutant ass and he is going to milk this for everything it’s worth. 


	76. Chapter 76

**Anonymous asks: OK so 1. I really love your So It Goes universe, like so much I've reread everything 2/3 times by now and randomly think about it 2. if you're still taking prompts can you write something about Roxy talking/worrying about Calli?**

**\----**

Having word from the trolls is nice. Roxy’s happy for everyone that knows for sure that their loved ones are alive and well. She’s happy the trolls are on their way because more friends is always an awesome thing.

She’s still kind of bummed that there’s been no word on Callie. Roxy’s trying not to worry about that because worrying over unknowns doesn’t help anything and she’s gotta be happy and well for everyone else because they’re all happy but…

Dirk nudges her shoulder with his and jerks his head towards the stairs. Roxy follows him up to his bed fort and lets him drag her inside. His bed is surprisingly soft but already familiar for the amount of times she’s curled up with him because he and Dave are kind of dumb about how they talk to each other and nothing comforts her boy faster than a good cuddle.

This time, Dirk’s the one who gathers her against him and pets her hair and she just melts into it. Moments like this, she wonders what things would be like if they hadn’t been romantically incompatible but… Honestly? She would have missed this. And she would have missed out on Callie, too.

“I just miss her a lot,” Roxy manages and her voice sounds a lot more broken than she’d expected it would be but Dirk just nods and pets her some more. She maybe has a good cry but he won’t tell anyone, so it’s all good.


	77. Chapter 77

**Anonymous asks: can you tell us what happen in the hotel during the ambush? (or it wasnt much of an ambush because rose predicted this?)**

**\----**

Not only had Rose timed their evacuation from the UN headquarters perfectly for the drama, she also knew exactly when the goon squad shows. They’re ready for it, everything packed and ready to go, the room double checked, and most everything teleported off to their stop off until they can find some place more permanent.

Jade’s flagging a little already but she stubbornly soldiers on because she needs to. She’s already teleported Mr. Egbert and four others by the time the goons get there.

Jane’s ready for them, bracing the door while Jade takes a few seconds to catch her breath and hopefully not faint until they’re ready. Jane’s body shudders as the goons try to break the door down but she’s strong enough to hold it for the few seconds Jade needs to send Rose along. Her vision wavers after and then the door finally gives and Jane backs away from it. Dirk’s hands twitch like he’s about to reach for a sword (Mr. Egbert has been pretty picky about _not_ arming them but this might change his mind).

The door comes down. The goons start filing in. Jade reaches for her powers and feels burned edges. She’s not going to last long. She’s going to have to send the three of them in one go. Catching Dirk’s eye, she tries to relay that as the goons start talking about stuff that doesn’t quite get through because Jade’s not hearing all that well right now. It feels like static in her head, stuffed in her ears, rolling behind her eyes.

She’s aware of Jane and Dirk engaging the goon squad but can’t do anything to help. Her body hurts, feels overdrawn and overworked, and she never felt this way in the game. She wishes they could figure out a way to keep it from happening _now_.

Someone grabs her arm but the hand is too big to be one of her friends, rough with some kind of glove, and she’d strike out at him but she can’t risk losing the energy she’s gathering, getting ready for a three person jump-

The hand disappears and then there’s a yell. Jade ignores it. She’s almost ready, gathering and holding and feeling power coil in her belly. She’s almost-

And then she feels it, like a battery charged to full. She latches onto the familiar energy of Jane and Dirk and teleports all three of them away. Her feet crumple under her when they get there. She feels someone catch her, lower her to the ground, and then she’s out.


	78. Chapter 78

**othercat2 asks: So, we saw what happens when Jermain tries to intimidate the kids in hopes of getting answers. What happens immediately after/what happened from their pov? Also, why did they in the end decide not to explain sburb/grub?**

**—-**

Dave has to give Jade credit. She whisks them away from the UN with perfect dramatic timing. He manages not to stumble when he pops into the hotel room (John and Mr. Egbert are not so lucky) and that makes it very easy for him to zero in on Jade immediately.

Her face is a little pale but she’s mostly okay. They haven’t made much of a breakthrough in not exhausting her anytime she uses her powers, but- Oh. Dave catches her arm just in time to steady her as she lists to one side. Jade gives him a little smile and then Jane’s yelling at them to get everything checked and make sure they don’t forget anything.

Dave gets kind of caught up in the scramble after that. 


	79. Chapter 79

**demonlucy-chan asks: Hello~! I was wondering, if you have time, whether you could do a request for SIG were Dirks new protection squad is put into action~ ⊙ω⊙**

**\----**

One day, Dirk closes off completely. There’s no warning and if they didn’t already know him, there’d be no sign anything was wrong, but Jane, Roxy, and Dave _know_ him. When Dirk doesn’t take the chance to rib Rose about the ridiculously cheesy and sarcastic sonnet she’s composing to read to Kanaya the moment the trolls arrive, they know it’s _serious_.

Dave’s on first since Dirk would never suspect anything. He gets a set of orange sheets with his allowance and remakes the bed fort with them. Roxy adds strings of twinkling little lights along the top that they position just like the night sky she remembers. It takes very little goading to get Jade to help rig (safe!) wiring to it that they hide along one of the legs.

Jane has the duty of wearing down her dad about a pool. She keeps it very hush hush but the others not in the know definitely wonder about the pointed commentary between her and her dad for the week or so because he gives in. The pool gets installed just before a weekend.

Dirk watches all of this with a certain amount of confusion that Dave can plainly see. He still hadn’t caught on just yet, even if he did seem pretty delighted about the bed makeover. At least in the Strider way.

It’s not until Dirk comes in on Jane, Roxy, and Dave painting the mural on the back wall of the Strider bedroom that he gets it.

“Why?” he asks and it almost sounds offended because Dirk still hasn’t figured out how to talk to normal people. Roxy’s working on that.

“We figured you might like a little slice of home,” Roxy says with a cheery smile.

“It’s okay to be homesick, dude,” Dave adds, concentrating on the precise details of the ocean wave he’s working on. 

“Do you think it’s missing anything?” Jane asks, holding out a brush.

Dirk looks at each of them, more and more blank with each second. Then he takes the brush and starts adding a silhouette of the apartment tower. 


	80. Chapter 80

**Anonymous asks: "Random thought but lately I've been wondering how Kankri is doing in SIG."**

**—-**

This is not dignified. This is as far from dignified as Kankri is even aware exists. This is practically an insult to the very idea of dignity and any worth the very concept ever had.

He peeks out over the edge of the rocky outcrop he’s crouching on, keeping his body low to keep out of sight. His breathing scrapes thinly past too large teeth in a too large mouth as he opens his eyes wider, zoning in on every hint of movement in the cave below him. The lusus’ belly rises and falls in slow, uneven movements. A whisker flicks here and there but the beast appears to be asleep finally. Kankri swallows the thick lump of fear in his throat and takes a chance to move.

He’s barely gone a foot when one of his ridiculously wide boots nudges a tiny rock off the ledge. It hits the ground and the lusus lifts its head, immediately awakened from sleep.

Kankri barely keeps from groaning. He’s never going to get out of this forsaken place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot I hadn't posted this


	81. Chapter 81

**Anonymous asks: "SIG PROMPT: Has Dirk ever spoken to Dave about his past? Pre-Game: about Alpha Dave and growing up nearly entirely alone with only robots for company."**

**—-**

“And then I got my ass handed to me by the fish queen?”

“She totally killed you, dude. The histories agree that it was pretty fucking brutal.”

Dave is quiet a moment, letting that sink in. It lasts long enough that Dirk wonders if he should have not been so truthful but then Dave tips his head back and lets out a single, soft sigh. The look on his face is nothing but pleased.

“I _am_ a hero,” he says so quietly that Dirk almost misses it.

“Uh.” Dirk blinks, completely lost and kind of worried because _what_. “Yes, you are. I mean, we kind of all won the game-”

“Yeah, but…” Dave shakes his head and looks off, like he’s a little dazed. “Nah. It’s cool. I’m cool. Let’s go play on John’s new xbox and replace all his high scores.”

“Dave-”

But Dave’s already getting up like he didn’t just confuse the fuck out of Dirk with a meaning loaded one off he’s refusing to explain.


	82. Chapter 82

**moonaft asks: "SIG: How's Porrim doing?"**

**—-**

Porrim’s watching the progress of two rustblood wigglers as they build some kind of tree installation when Rufioh very literally falls into her. The two of them go sprawling and Porrim yelps as she hits the ground. She turns back to give him a dirty look but he’s too busy getting his head up under the weight of his even more enormous horns. He’s been falling over every ten seconds since they found each other a day ago. Apparently, despite his adult body being used to the weight, he’s not quite there yet himself.

“Sorry, doll,” he says absently with a slight edge of strain in his voice under the more prominent exasperation.

Picking herself up again with a put upon sigh, Porrim glances out and sees that the wigglers have scrambled elsewhere at the noise. No doubt, they’ll be back with weapons fairly quickly. Whatever mirrorverse version of the world they’re on with its complete lack of adults and the far spread of individual lawnrings, the inhabitants have proven to be quite martial in attitude and Porrim has no great need to kill children.

“Come on,” she says, reaching down to help yank him onto his feet. If she left him to it, it might take the next half hour. “I can see light over that next ridge. It’s too much for another lawnring so that might be the spaceport we’ve been looking for.”

“I’ll leave the seeing to you… I’m keeping my eyes on my feet for a while.”

They don’t make it to the spaceport. An hour later, they’re ambushed by an excitedly screeching Mituna who is more than happy to lead them over to Meenah’s fancy spaceship. Porrim is happy enough to follow him. (And twice as happy to hear him talking like he used to.)


	83. Chapter 83

**moonaft asks: "Vriska's been remarkably quiet in SIG so far. How's that going?"**

**—-**

“This is _soooooooo_ annoying,” Vriska whines after having to translate the human adult’s words for Kanaya again. “Why do _I_ have to do this? There’s so many better things I could be doing with my time.”

Kanaya doesn’t pull a face but she rather wants to. She instead just levels a steady look and says, “I’ll just skip over to the docterrorist’s office and have the human gibberish installed into my thinkpan since it’s such an imposition on your valuable gaming hours.”

She means it to be sharp, a sting, but abruptly Vriska’s eyes flash with a mania Kanaya knows to dread. The mania always mean _ideas_ and no one is safe when it comes to Vriska’s ideas.

“Oh, this might just work!” Vriska exclaims and then vaults herself over the back of the couch and races off while yelling for Terezi. Kanaya is left alone with the only human in the place she can’t talk to but the moment they meet ganderbulbs, she finds the same almost fond exasperation on his face.

“(Vowel Filled Gibberish)” he says, shaking his head.

“As always,” Kanaya agrees with a sigh.


	84. Chapter 84

**ANON asks: "If you are still taking prompts for the asides, how about the scene after Rose and Roxy return from Texas and have their chat about how is their relationship going to work?"**

**\----**

Not-Mom stays worried about the Striders the whole way home. She’s trying very hard not to show it but Rose finds the tells in every word, every gesture. She notes the number of times Not-Mom checks her phone (despite it being turned off) or stares out the window like she wants to jump out of the plane. It’s ridiculously easy to catch.

Not-Mom is a sixteen year old girl who is earnest and silly and hardworking to a degree Rose admits is admirable. It’s… not exactly a comfort to know the truth now but it’s still better than it was before. Now Not-Mom makes some amount of sense. Rose can work with this. 

Not-Mom asks what she wants to eat for dinner when they get home. Rose gives her a ridiculous order just to see what happens and Not-Mom doesn’t even flick an eyelash before she’s writing it down for later. It’s almost as if she’s relieved to have something to do. It… Rose does not know quite what to think about that. She keeps thinking someone will come out of no where and let her in on the joke, but Not-Mom continues to be Not-Mom.

Her name is Roxy and Rose supposes she should probably start calling her that.

“We can do this,” Roxy says to her out of the blue. She grins widely, so hopeful and earnest that Rose scarcely knows what to put on her own face. “ _Pinky-swear_. We’re gonna be the best team, Rosie.”

Mom had never used a nickname. Rose… almost likes that Not-mom does. “Of course.”

“I’m gonna totes learn faster than a speeding bullet,” Roxy promises. “Mom powers activated!”

“That seems excessive.”

“ _Nothing_ is excessive when it comes to you.”

And that… Rose’s chest does a tight clench and then releases. Her mother had always been so very over the top with her gifts and her affection performances but Rose had never actually _believed_ in them. It’s… This is different.

“You might need to let me know if there’s something I’m not doing,” Roxy admits but even this is filled with a determination to succeed. “I’m kinda new at this but a rad girl like me is _sure_ to get it right eventually!”

On anyone else, Rose might think Roxy was fishing for some kind of compliment or comfort. On Roxy, it’s just too _honest_. And maybe that’s the biggest difference between her and Mom. Mom rarely showed anything except in her easily mistaken actions. Roxy hides absolutely nothing, even if some of it can be a little desperate.

“Okay,” Rose says and she’s not entirely sure she’s agreeing with but it makes Roxy brighten further and Rose decides that’s good enough. They’ll figure this out together. 


	85. Chapter 85

**kalicofox asks: I nearly screamed with joy when I saw that new snippety bit! I love it so fricking much!! On another note, though, how does Ironclaw feel about being on a ship with a crap ton of basically-kids who are (almost?) all terrified of him? What was it like the first few weeks on the ship? What was his reaction when he was given his orders to escort them (basically) to Earth? I'm just really curious about Ironclaw in general, I guess!**

**—-**

The details of the assignment are fresh in his mind as Ironclaw steps aboard his current ship. He’s greeted by an premolt brown that salutes by rote and then mutters something disparaging to another premolt brown as if he thinks Ironclaw is too old to hear him. This is not an unknown occurrence in the last handful of sweeps but he has never bothered to be offended by it. For the most part, silly rebellious snarking does not make for problems. He knows there are several commanders who demand blind adoration but it’s always seemed to be counter to Troll nature. If anything, the freedom keeps his crews from getting harmful levels of stress built up.

He has a crew of only six, all of them premolt and barely trained, but he’s been given a class three destroyer instead of the usual class five scout craft. It’s been _registered_ as a scout ship but this is definitely _not_ one. Ironclaw wonders if this is some kind of show of force, some well thought strategy by the Empress, but the better part of his experience finds it more likely that the Empress simply felt like it. No matter. One ship is as useful as another for his purposes but he would have preferred having something more familiar and also getting a _full_ ship crew. Six is barely enough to man navigation and engineering. He’ll be handling tactical himself. A ship like this should have a compliment of at least a hundred, more comfortably with three times that, but he’ll manage with six. They’re going to be not just doubling but sextupling up duties and death to them all if they come across some pocket of resistance, but they’ll manage.

This would be more tolerable if he’d been able to bring his senior students instead of a group of pre-conscription juveniles and Softouch. Make no mistake, he’s quite proud of the progress Softouch has been making in controlling her worse nature but this is not the time for a test run. He simply can’t trust that she’d still be alive by the time he got back if he left her. Softouch could be so very restless and her lack of allies all but guaranteed her death should he, her only champion, leave her alone for any extended time. The Empress allowed him only one student accompaniment (and barely agreed to that) so Softouch is it. Someday, his bleeding pusher will be the death of him.

Ironclaw inspects the ship in a quick, logical fashion. He may not be used to them anymore but he knows a destroyer as well as the next Troll that survived the infantry. His premolts haven’t skimped anywhere in the prelaunch preparations, not even the haughty blue one, but that’s unlikely to last past the first few weeks of space travel away from more the rigors of the Fleet. Ironclaw tastes the ozone of psionics in his brow when he speaks with the Helmsman, but she’s willing enough to work with him. She’s young as well, newly installed, and he’s her first captain. Her eagerness is refreshing and he makes a mental note to find little ways to reward her should she continue to be so amiable. It’s better to be on good terms with the thinksponge of the ship than to have to cajole usefulness out of them.

There’s very little time before launch when he finally gets around to greeting his… passengers. The twelve juveniles stare at him with differing amounts of fear and suspicion. They’re so very _small_ and _pale_. Even the low bloods, closer to molt than any of them, look so very young. Ironclaw hasn’t seen a juvenile since his own conscription so many sweeps ago.

_“A group of wigglers?” he’d asked the Empress, sure he’d heard wrong. “How exactly is this necessary for a First Contact mission?”_

_“Who the shell do you think you are, questioning my orders?”_

He hadn’t continued. The Empress has been unpredictable for weeks now, acting completely contrary to herself. Ironclaw has never seen her this way and isn’t sure how far she’ll let him push her anymore. He doesn’t know what to think about the change. There is a worsening of the mind in some species he’s had contact with but to his knowledge, Trolls do not suffer it. Watching the Empress now, hearing the rumors of her court, he wonders. She’s so achingly ancient…

“Which one of you is Karkat Vantas?” Ironclaw asks. The juveniles look between themselves, nervous and unsure, but then a small male with his sign in gray steps forward. Ah. He should have known. For a mutant to survive this long, he had to have been hiding his blood color.

“You’re Ironclaw?” he asks, chest puffing up despite the fear drenching him. There’s something desperate to him, but time will tell what that desperation is for. To survive? To prove himself, perhaps?

“You will be accompanying me for ten hours each solar cycle,” Ironclaw says without preamble. “The Empress has decreed that you will be Chief Ambassassin on this mission and I have only a few perigees to teach you what usually take at least two sweeps to learn.”

Vantas’ eyes widen as he stares at Ironclaw, surprised and pleased and still stinking of fear. It’s not a smell Ironclaw enjoys but he will have to deal with it. The juveniles are practically swimming in it but with time and exposure it should lessen. He addresses the others, asking about their proficiencies since they haven’t been assessed yet and then assigns each of them to various duties under his premolt crew. No sense in letting extra hands go unused when they’re already so severely understaffed.

As the juveniles file out to meet their new commanding officers, the single cultist holds back. He watches Ironclaw with the look of someone trying to figure out a puzzle they’re missing pieces of.

“I ain’t gonna motherfucking worry about my invertebrother being all on his motherfucking lonesome with you,” he says and it’s not a question. There’s a faint prickle of chucklevoodoos, undirected but potent. Ironclaw wonders how this juvenile might compare to Softouch in terms of power. She’d honed her skill to devastating effectiveness but there were many who could do more blunt damage with it.

“The Empress has pardoned him,” he says by way of an answer.

 The cultist’s lips twist at the corners, showing more razor sharp, high-blood teeth than is strictly necessary. “Glad we got our wicked understanding on.”

He slinks off, unconcerned or at least good enough to hide if he is. Ironclaw watches him go. Of all of them, even the little heiress (whom he is not happy to be taking off world) and the violet, it is the cultist he is most leery of. Time will tell if his instincts are right.


	86. Chapter 86

**xenokaia asks: "Kankri meeting up with the others?"**

**\----**

“What took you so long?!” Kankri whines, throwing out his arms dramatically even as Porrim cleans blood off her nails and Meenah’s wiping it off her cheek. “And why didn’t you just _lure it away?!_ That lusus wasn’t doing anything wrong!”

“Buoy, _some_ one’s demanding,” Meenah huffs out with a roll of her eyes.

“And it could have been so much _cleaner_. What are we going to do if some poor wiggler comes across this massacre?!”

“Life experienth?” Mituna suggests cheerfully.

“ _It could scar them for life and it would be all your faults!”_

Porrim sighs. She shares a long suffering look with Rufioh, who is not nearly as put off as she is but the camaraderie is there none the less as Kankri starts getting into the long term psychological effects of early introduction to carnage. It’s been just weird enough since she woke up that she’s almost fond of the rant.


	87. Chapter 87

**ANON asks: "I know you're probably busy, but I really love your SIG universe and I wanna know what some of the less mentioned characters (Nepeta, Tavros, Aradia, etc.) think of the Earth & their current situation?"**

**\----**

“So, uh,” Tavros starts, giving the warehouse a look around. “This isn’t so bad?”

Aradia’s been climbing and jumping from stack to stack since they showed up, crowing with a human Tavros only vaguely recognizes (the male one that is Not-John) but Tavros is kind of happy enough to stay on the ground. Which is a good thing considering he’s still getting used to his leg braces. He’s kind of glad they figured out some other solution than _cutting off his legs_ this time. Not that his robo-legs hadn’t been cool, but…

Yeah. Anyway.

Nepeta scrunches her nose a bit. “It’s nice to stretch my claws! And get away from _Talvar.”_

Tavros winces a little. Okay, so Cadet Talvar had been _just maybe a little_ too forward when it came to her adoration of Nepeta whenever Equius wasn’t around. And a little bit _extremely creepy_. Not that Nepeta couldn’t handle anything that came her way but maybe the rest of them found ways to hang out with her more when the behavior had been noticed.

“Purrhaps the humans have gotten a meal together,” she continues cheerfully before bouncing off to investigate. Tavros levers himself off the box he’d been using as a chair and wanders after her with lack of anything better to do. 


	88. Chapter 88

**theenglishmanwithallthebananas asks: k but now you got me all INVESTED and i need to know Ironclaw's reaction if/when he figured out the stupid kids he's with a)met humans before b)possibly filled quadrants with them?? and c)have weird not normal powers, pretty please i love you**

**\----**

“No,” Vantas says with sudden authority in the middle of Ironclaw’s explanation of first contact procedures. It’s only their second lesson but Vantas has already shown himself fully willing to interject his own thoughts and ideas. Such as now. “I’ve seen human films on this. We do it that way and they’ll stampede.”

Ironclaw blinks, slow and deliberate. “You’ve seen human films.”

“Dave kept going on and on about the ‘ironic badassery’ of human Will Smith’s performance in the film ‘Independence Day’. Which is a faulty and misleading title-” which Ironclaw agrees with, “that explains exactly none of the more intricate plot lines-”

“Dave?”

“One of the humans we met-”

The rest Ironclaw frankly does not hear, but it’s unlikely to be important. Vantas had met humans before. This wasn’t first contact after all, merely first _official_ meet. Which had it’s own baggage but this could make things a lot easier.

He takes a moment to be angry at the lack of accurate data he’d been given. He hadn’t had time to do any kind of analysis, no time to craft an actual plan. No, he’d been called in and given this ridiculous ship, and then told to train up a mouthy pre-conscript to head the mission. And now he finds out that at least Vantas has had contact with the aliens before. This is something he should have been told before leaving his office.

It takes a few breaths before he can normalize himself. By then, Vantas has figured out something is wrong and wound down his rant. Ironclaw studies his face a moment, then asks, “All right. Then how would you handle this?”

Vantas is tense, likely sensing the pheromone changes, but still obviously pleased to have his input valued.

—-

Vantas is quadranted to the human Dave. It hits Ironclaw within a day of finding out he had contact with humans at all and he’s annoyed with himself that it took that long.

Quadranting with another species isn’t exactly common but Ironclaw would be the last to decry it. He remembers fondly the near sweep he spent with his own alien lover before the succession. Still, it seems suspiciously convenient.

He figures out within another few days that Maryam is also quadranted to a human. It seems to be red in both instances, though Vantas’ has a twinge of pale Ironclaw hasn’t quite figured out yet. In any case, he tries not to think much about the relationships themselves and more of the potential for usefulness they pose.

—-

He figures out about the humans’ powers when half a dozen of them appear out of no where and then disappear with his juvenile passengers.

Ironclaw gives the spaces where they’d been a hard look. He had not been briefed on any powers humans might have, of course. Because he’d been given _incomplete information and had had no time to scout or plan a decent recon._ But that’s fine. It is. He’ll deal with what he’s been given. The Empress put him here because she knows he’ll get the job done, even if this is the strangest mission he’s ever run.

He meets the ganders of an adult human nearby and thinks they might be feeling the same annoyance right now. 


	89. Chapter 89

**madamehardy asks: Given Dave's exuberant insistence on telling everybody that he and Karkat are doing the do, and given that Rose is probably a great deal more discreet but also doing the do, how is Dad coping? Are there even enough bedrooms to go around? Is everybody sleeping in tents in the back yard?**

**\----**

They can’t go back to the house right now as they are technically fugitives harboring literal illegal aliens but the warehouse suits them enough for now. Jeff had brought enough bedding for them all and they had other needed supplies. Anything that ran out would be fetched quickly and quietly. There was a mutli-stall bathroom and a small kitchenette but otherwise it was a little like camping.

He is very ready to welcome the alien children, despite their strange appearance and the language barrier for some (but not all and that is odd but he’ll roll with it.) He is less ready to walk into Dave and Karkat half naked and sucking out each other’s tonsils in a slightly more secluded run of boxes. Jeff does the kind thing and backs away without alerting either to his presence, and then very quickly finds something to occupy his mind.

Teenagers are hormonal and with developing impulse control, he reminds himself, and these two had been apart for several months. It’s only logical.

He is very careful to avoid secluded runs of boxes after that. 


	90. Chapter 90

**catharticescapism asks:"I LOVE YOUR SIG SERIES!!! I binged it all of yesterday until I passed out and it is SO. GOOD. Ahhh, you're honestly amazing! If you're still taking requests, what about Karkat's POV from his reunion with Dave after the ship touches down? : O"**

**lynnthinksurcool13 said: SIG: I would love to see Karkat’s POV for his reunion with Dave, especially what they got up to after teleporting out to the warehouse. (Seeing his side of the proceedings after he exits the ship would also be amazing, if you have time.) You’re awesome, I’m so in love with this whole universe, thank you so much for opening prompts! <3 **

**\----**

His throat is hoarse by the time their human hatefriends show up. It happens in an instant, their bodies suddenly taking up spaces all around. Karkat has a split second of incomprehension before he catches a specific shade of blond and then everything narrows down to _Dave_.

It’s been perigees. It feels like hundreds of sweeps. Karkat can think of nothing except throwing his arms around Dave _right this second_. So he does. Dave laughs in his auricular slot as they topple to the ground and it is the sweetest sound Karkat has ever heard. He can’t help but silence it with his mouth to keep it from escaping them, but Dave doesn’t mind.

There are a spare few seconds of absolute perfection and then with a burst of static electricity, the hot, desert air is gone and replaced with something cooler and almost stale. Karkat reluctantly parts from Dave to survey their new surroundings, but he catches Dave’s hand the moment they’re standing. He is not letting him go anytime soon.


	91. Chapter 91

**madamehardy asks: "Is any of the adults (one of the military people?) going to notice how hypervigilant the children are and put two and two together re PTSD? Those 'gifts' weren't exactly given."**

**\----**

“What?” Jermaine asks incredulously, brows lifted.

“Regardless of what it looks like, those kids need some serious counseling,” Noe says frankly because everything that comes out of his mouth tends to be serious but right now it has to do with children and for as long as Jermaine has known him, Noe is _always_ fatalistically serious when it comes to children. “I’ve been observing the tapes and the couple times they’ve shown up here. We have some serious problems.”

“Now, just because Dave Strider doesn’t like to cooperate-”

“No, Dave Strider is not actually the worst of the bunch,” Noe interrupts with a pinched frown. “He’s got issues, I’d bet they’re deep set from early childhood as well as more recent traumas, but he’s well adjusted compared to the others. I’d be more worried about the Egbert kid-”

“Which one?”

“John. There’s some pretty heavy stress indicators pretty much anytime he was taped. Rose is the worst I’ve observed so far but the other kids haven’t shown up yet and I bet they’re just as bad.”

Jermaine considers this. He doesn’t have the specialization to have a well informed opinion on the matter, not like Noe and his ridiculously in depth psychology background before he went into sociology, but he doesn’t quite see the problems himself. They all seemed like perfectly normal teenagers, barring the magic powers.

“Whatever happened to those kids, it left them with the kind of indicators I’d expect from veterans and POWs,” Noe says to stress his point. “Egbert, Sr. doesn’t show the same. He didn’t experience whatever they did, but he’s got his own problems. I’d recommend a licensed councilor for all nine of them. I’m sure there’s someone with the security clearance.”

“Are you volunteering?”

Noe snorts. “I appreciate your faith in my abilities but there’s a reason I changed my focus. I’d never be able to keep up a safe emotional distance to be any good at it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Jermaine notes it down on his ever expanding to-do list. “Do you think this is time sensitive?”

“I don’t think any of them are going to break down on us,” Noe murmurs with a little shrug. “This whole business is keeping them too busy to stew in their own thoughts for now, but… Soon. Soon would be good.”

“Very well. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

“My pleasure, sir.”


	92. Chapter 92

**ANON asks: "Ok so about sig, my question is, if the kids hadn't gotten their memories back, andthe trolls were coming anyways, what would've THAT scenario been like? The trolls showing up and the kids not remembering. Would john still pretend not remembering?"**

**\----**

John has spent months being himself, being a kid, _healing_. He loves his sassy grandma, his dutiful dad, his stupid friends on the internet. (He still finds it weird that Dad’s office is a bedroom right now but where else would Nanna sleep?)

Life is good. He’s got to go back to school in the fall, which kind of sucks but he’s also excited because it’s _normal_. There’s nothing dangerous about school and he’s going to see his stuffy teachers again and wow did he not realize how much he missed them. He likes that all he has to worry about right now is passing the seventh grade.

And then the message from space comes in.

John spends half an hour staring at the text image on his computer and hyperventilating. No. _No_. He hasn’t had nearly enough time yet. Why are they coming now?! Why couldn’t they have _waited?!_ It’s going to be months yet before they show up, but still! He was… He kind of misses the trolls, but…

He just.

Isn’t up for this right now.

He’s not ready for the way Nanna starts acting weird. She keeps calling people and having whispered, worried conversations with them that John makes sure he doesn’t hear enough to understand. He’s not ready for the contemplative nature that falls over Dad in the following weeks. He’s not ready to give up his normal, splice of life existence that he fought so hard to get for just a little while, just long enough to _rest_.

He sidesteps Rose’s questions when she notices something is up about the fact that he will not talk about the aliens on their way. He dances around Jade’s curious contemplation of possible alien physiology. He blithely ignores Dave crowing about having the same name as the person the aliens were talking to.

Nanna takes a trip the day the trolls arrive. Things feel weirdly awkward between he and Dad without her. He’s not sure why because it was never awkward before but Dad has a lot on his mind right now and John has a lot he is trying _not_ to have on his mind…

The TV doesn’t give them much in the way of updates. Just enough that the UN is handling the meeting and they haven’t started an interstellar war yet. All anyone on the internet wants to talk about is the aliens so John spends a lot of time playing video games.

Two weeks after the trolls show up, they land. It’s a big deal. People on TV scream about invasions and refugees and nuclear deterrents. It’s all stuff John really doesn’t care about (except he does care and he is getting kind of scared that there’s not a way to salvage his normal life.)

He glances past Dad one day and stops dead because Dave’s bro is on TV. The marquee at the bottom of the screen declares “MAN SNEAKS INTO ALIEN LANDING SITE” over shaky cam video. He’s surrounded by soldiers and being forced towards the gates. John only recognizes him because he can barely make out the shades. The news anchor talking over it seems pissed off by his recklessness and another guy says something about scoping out threats but John doesn’t hear that part because he ducks into his room.

Why did this have to happen? Why couldn’t they have waited? Or just never come?

He’s still so tired.

Nanna still isn’t back and when he checks up on his friends, Rose is apparently in Kansas because her mom picked up and dragged her there when the aliens came down. Dave is in Kansas with them because his bro apparently knows Rose’s mom. Dave has no idea what’s going on and is trying to be cool about it. John is maybe a little jealous he couldn’t hang out with them, but then he remembers what he’d be giving up if he did.

He has a nightmare. Dad soothes him out of it and tries to get him to talk but John nopes out of that harder than anything in his life. He starts school. Everyone thinks its weird that he won’t talk about the aliens. He concentrates on getting good grades, thinking up new pranks, and playing video games.

It feels emptier than the last timeline did. John soldiers through it anyway. He’s determined to have the time he fought for, to be normal, to not worry…

It’s six months after the aliens land that John finally gives in and tells Dad everything. They’re in Kansas the next day and it turns out Dave’s bro, Rose’s mom, Nanna, and Dad all remember the game. He hadn’t been counting on that. It takes a bit for him to rectify that anyone remembers other than him, but he manages. And then they bully their way in on the UN operation.

If anything, he needs to tell Karkat the newest terrible pun he’s come up with.


	93. Chapter 93

**Anonymous asks: How did ironclaw find out about his kismesis death? i dont imagine that was a fun time**

**\----**

That is not High Chief.

Ironclaw is careful not to let his shock show on his face. Any weakness will not be tolerated here, even lack of knowledge or ability to be confused, and he cannot give up any of his esteem that he has fought for here.

The Krthrsnsrhtrk is of the same configuration but different geode placement, different colors, different posture. There is none of the fondness Ironclaw has learned to notice, none of the teasing affection. It takes him a few moments to place this individual as one of High Chief’s offshoot buds and that is when he realizes what happened.

The new High Chief lifts one blocky hand. Ironclaw takes it numbly and cannot quite appreciate the fact that they are honoring the same greeting their predecessor had decided on. 

“Greetings to the flesh clade,” they tell him in a cloud of shining sparkles.

“You are well met,” Ironclaw hears himself saying without any sign of distress.

He gets through the day’s discussions and when he is finally excused, Ironclaw sends his student companions back to the ship. He walks through the settlement, already knowing where to go. High Chief had taken him several times to tell the stories of their lineage, of past conquests and great battles. He knows where to find it.

The Krthrsnsrhtrk do not have graves. Their bodies do not rot away to nothing. Most of them were crumbled to parts and used to build other structures, but High Chiefs are immortalized. He goes to the Hall of Chiefs and gazes upon what remains of his kismesis.

The battle damage shows vividly on the still body, none of it patched like a living Krthrsnsrhtrk would be. What parts that could be saved are held expertly in the configuration Ironclaw knows as well as his own body. He can see what is missing, what is damaged. It isn’t as upsetting as the lack of a living glow.

“How dare you fall to them,” Ironclaw murmurs softly as he gazes at the dead face. “I can’t even take revenge since it was one of _yours_.”

There’s no answer. He doesn’t feel as if High Chief is still there, watching and aware. That is not how their faith works. They do not linger.

Ironclaw stares wordlessly at the still face for longer than he should. It is a deep hurt, one he had not expected after only half a sweep, but it is there none the less. He closes his eyes, takes a slow breath of the musty, dirt like smell, and then he goes back to his ship and his duties.

Trolls do not grieve long and Krthrsnsrhtrk do not grieve at all. High Chief would sneer at him if he did now. Ironclaw almost wants to just to spite him.


	94. Chapter 94

**Anonymous asks: SIG prompt: Roxy using her void powers to make random stuff. (So many green cubes and pumpkins)**

****

****

**\----**

It’s not that she meant to shock anyone. She’s just _bored_. But as she looks up and notices a couple of the adults staring at her, Roxy realizes maybe constructing a fort out of Generic Items isn’t the best use of her time.

“Did you just-” one of them says and then stops like he’s choked.

“Just one of my sparkly magic powers!” she chirps at him and then tosses him a green cube. He’s too shocked to catch it and it bounces harmlessly against his head. The woman with him makes a grab for it and then stares at the cube like the secrets of the universe are in there.

Roxy thinks it’s cute. Then she gets back to her super rad fort.


	95. Chapter 95

**Anonymous asks:Either Dave or dad's pov of getting the fuck outta dodge when Jermaine demands answers**

**\----**

Jeff did not want it to happen this way, but he has to protect the children. Even from someone like Mr. Moreau, who is just trying to protect everyone the best way he knows how. It isn’t his fault he doesn’t have all the information, could likely not fully understand it all in the first place.

“-You _will_ give me this information or you will be detained. Do you understand?”

 _Damn._ The children do not do well with direct confrontation, not with the kind of power they all possess, so Jeff starts trying to defuse things, even as John starts babbling and drowning him out, but it’s no use. He’s not fast enough-

“You can try,” Dave says abruptly and Jeff’s insides twist with concern before they’re suddenly gone. It doesn’t feel like anything has moved, certainly not himself, but between one blink and another, he’s back at the hotel.

This is not how he wanted any of this to go, but he’ll have to make the best of it now. And the first step is making sure Jade hasn’t knocked herself out using her teleportation powers…


	96. Chapter 96

**Anonymous asks: omg ur terezi/john turf talk.... it makes me wonder if they're gonna strike up a <3< thing here? [if they are.... jermaines fucking reaction is just hypothetically killing me]**

**\----**

“I think I’m missing some pertinent information,” Jermaine mutters under his breath and Sarah just snorts in response.

The meeting started smoothly. Then John Egbert and the Troll Terezi began picking at each other and it quickly devolved into half concealed threats and cajoling. Jermaine sighs a little, rubbing his head. At least all of the other children seem as bored with this as he is.

“If we could get back to the matter at hand,” he says, trying to break up the fight, but they continue unheeded.

“John, Terezi, take it outside,” Mr. Egbert says firmly and miracle for the ages, the two of them file out while still picking at one another. Jermaine lets out a relieved breath. Now they can get down to business-

“Five human dollars says she bloodies his mouth hole by the time we leave,” the Troll Sollux says dryly.

“With _hers_ ,” adds the Troll Vriska, snickering.

“Well, duh.”

Jermaine scowls.


	97. Chapter 97

**akyesein asks: Not sure if it's been asked yet, but any chance we could see reuniting with the trolls from Dave's perspective?**

**\---**

**__** _Beat._

Sound comes back in with a whoosh, lots of yelling and gasps and cussing. It’s so loud that it feels almost like a thick blanket around him, stifling and heavy, but the sudden brightness of day blinds him from what’s causing it for a moment.

_Beat_.

He snaps his eyes open from behind his shades and everything slows down to a near crawl as he turns, looking through unfamiliar bodies and friends alike. He needs to find- needs to _see-_

_Beat._

And there is Karkat, looking startled and excited and absolutely fucking perfect. Dave doesn’t think. He opens his arms as Karkat comes flying at him and then crushes him against his chest.

He never wants to be separated ever again.


	98. Chapter 98

**zang269 asks: I'm not sure if you're still taking prompts, or if this is where I ask, but what's going on with the team looking for teenage aliens with magic powers and the harassed dad-fusion?**

**\---**

Dobson kind of hates everything about this. He hates New York anyway but he _really_ hates this.

The fugitives- _the_ _children and their adopted father,_ got to get out of the old mindset- are gone without a trace. Searching the abandoned, half demolished hotel rooms doesn’t shine any light on where they could have gone. His contact in Washington says the Egbert home hasn’t been touched, though why Moreau had them check is beyond him. 

His guys check every hotel, motel, and BNB in town. They come up with bupkis. He sends out a few to scope out squats and bridges and anything else he can think of where a couple kids might hide out, but they’re still empty handed.

Taking a break, Dobson goes to visit the one guy who’d had to be hospitalized but Johanson is in high spirits due to very good pain medication, so it’s not all bad. Dobson gives a polite nod to his wife and then heads back out.

Then someone finally calls and says the kids have been spotted in fucking _Kansas_ and now have _aliens_ with them so Dobson packs his guys up and heads out.

—-

Kansas is too hot and too windy and too fucking full of dirt. Dobson hates everything about it. He didn’t know how much he could hate a place until he went to fucking Kansas. Now he knows the depths that his hatred can sink to.

The big fuck off space ship just makes him want to take a leak on it to prove a point. He wonders about urges like that, sometimes.

Anyway. They’re still supposed to be looking for the kids, but if they show up on site, no one touches them. Dobson gives Moreau the stink eye over that one but he guesses it’s got something to do with diplomatic relations and stuff Dobson could really not care less about but, hey, it’s still a better paycheck than the force. He’s got Christmas to think about and fourteen grandbabies because his sister’s kid apparently doesn’t know how to prevent that sort of thing. At least his Angie’d only had two. That’s a decent number.

They’re low key searching the surrounding towns but considering the aliens are gray with horns, he’s pretty sure they aren’t hiding anywhere nearby. Someone would have seen them by now. Dobson bides his time. He’ll catch the rascals one way or another…

—-

Son of a _fuck_ , they’re in _Switzerland_ now. Dobson throws up his hands in disgust. At least Moreau decided they don’t need to be looked for anymore. Little miracles. 


	99. Chapter 99

**othercat2 asks: If you're doing sig fic prompts: could we see the fruity rumpus reunion pajama party? Or maybe someone being Concern Face because Jade's worn herself a bit thin with all the teleporting shenanigans?**

**\----**

“Don’t. You. _Dare_.”

Jade stops trying to get out of the makeshift bed-nest the trolls had cobbled around her when she’d been out. She looks up guiltily to where Mr. Egbert towers over her, hands on his hips and eyes hard with parental disapproval.

“I just wanted to walk around _a little_ ,” she insists but Mr. Egbert doesn’t budge.

“Young lady, you were unconscious for _six hours_ ,” he says without a bit of mercy for her boredom. “You will do nothing but rest and eat until I’m satisfied you aren’t going to faint again.”

Jade sighs heavily and flops back into her blankets and pillows. “Oh _, fine_.”

“Good. I’m glad we have an understanding.”

Something bounces onto the blankets before he walks off. Jade pouts after him and then curiosity wins out and she twists around to see what it is. Oh _yes_ , Mr. Egbert is her favorite person after all. She fishes the pudding cup out and sets to enjoying her treat.


	100. Chapter 100

**crowhearted asks:I bet the moment Nepeta gets any kind of inkling that Aurous is into shipping they both get along like a house on fire and debate shipping all the time**

**\----**

The holographic display takes up most of the Helmsblock, color coded and beautifully organized with helpful links to other portions of the document. It’s a thing to behold.

Nepeta squeaks behind her hands, eyes growing wider at the sheer wealth of shipping possibilities and the thought put into each one, listing the positive and negative traits for each pairing…

“I don’t have enough data on the humans,” the Helmsman whines, obviously disappointed by that.

“I can help with that,” Nepeta assures her and the Helmsman grins so big it almost breaks her face.

Karkat was right. They’re going to get along _just fine_.


	101. Chapter 101

**rocky-3 asks:Has Roxy ever thought of asking the Trolls if they know anything about what happened with the Cherubs?**

**ANON asks: do you think calliope is around in the So It Goes universe? does jane worry about her as much as roxy does?**

**\----**

“Green skin, cute skull face. Calliope. Have you heard from her?”

None of the trolls seem to know who she’s talking about. Roxy isn’t too surprised. Calliope hadn’t communicated much with them, even if she was pretty into the whole troll thing. It’s still really disappointing though.

“Green girl?” Vriska says with some amount of interest and okay, that’s a shocker right now. Vriska doesn’t seem quite Calliope’s speed but okay, she’ll bite.

“Yes! Callie. That’s the one. So like. Yes? No? Something on my face?”

Vriska considers it a moment. She taps her chin like she’s trying to remember but her eyes don’t leave Roxy’s face. It’s almost kind of creepy but, eh, Roxy’s fine with a little creeptastic if she gets some answers. It’s been forever since she had something approaching hope about Callie.

“Hey, Terezi! Remember that weird dream you had back home?” Vriska shouts over her shoulder, as if Terezi wasn’t some ten feet away sitting at a table and watching them closely. Terezi’s face is thoughtful, but a lot more trustworthy than Vriska’s (there are stories John has told her about both of them that kind of make it hard to trust, but she’s trying her best with the benefit of the doubt.)

“I remember,” Terezi says with a tilt of her head, a sharper look in face. Roxy can almost see the very edge of her narrowing eyes through the bright red shades. “Heard a sweet voice. Very nice. Very suspicious! I questioned her intentions but dreams are illusive and not to be used as viable evidence in this proceeding.”

Roxy practically teleports in front of her. She barely notices grabbing Terezi’s shoulders as she demands, “Is she okay?!”

Terezi blinks. “I don’t know. I don’t remember much from it. It was just a dream about a green skull girl.”

Roxy tries to not be disappointed again. She really, really tries but it is really, really hard not to be. She just wants to hear from her, make sure Callie’s okay, even if she doesn’t get to see her. (She is maybe a little more disappointed that Callie maybe appeared to Terezi but not to her.)

“Weird dream,” Terezi muses. “She kept telling me I had something to do. A mystery to solve for the greater good! As is my civic duty.”

“I believe you’ve made great progress in that,” Rose says from nearby, giving them one of her patented Mysterious Knowing Smiles ™. “There appears to be a brightness in our future.”

She and Terezi share a look but Roxy doesn’t care because… because…

It sounds just like something Callie would do. Roxy swallows back a weird little emotional lump in her throat and then does nothing to hold back her brightest smile. Callie’s out there, somewhere. And now that she’s sure about that… Well. There’s not much their band of misfits can’t do!


	102. Chapter 102

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No prompt this time, just a random little scene I wanted to write XD

It’s not that Ironclaw is angry so much as _disappointed_. It’s been nearly six perigees since Softouch killed someone. He pours as much of that disappointment into his expression as he can while watching her wipe blood off her hands.

“We’ve talked about this,” he says and Softouch has the decency to pretend at being somewhat regretful.

“Motherfucker was too stupid for her own good,” Softouch mutters by way of defense that is absolutely no defense at all and Ironclaw has taught her better than that. He’s maybe even more disappointed about that than the dead troll. “I’ll just take that hunk of motherfucking meat and-”

“No. I’m donating Cadet Plenno’s body to human science.” It’s not often that Ironclaw gets the pleasure of seeing Softouch truly flat footed. He allows himself a certain amount of pleasure about it. “I’m down a cadet due to your lack of control. You don’t get to reap the benefit of it.”

“I’m saving the motherfucking slurry!” Softouch snarls, waving her fist as if it might somehow help make her point. It doesn’t.

“You just assigned yourself to Cadet Plenno’s duties,” Ironclaw informs her calmly and then ignores the bite of chucklevooodoos and the sharp swearing as he wheels the body away. He’s sure the human Yui will be quite pleased to have a subject to examine.


	103. Chapter 103

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No prompt!

Theodora doesn’t usually think about the lack of sound in her world but there are times it comes in handy. Like right now when she doesn’t have to hear Yui’s sudden scream when the nature of Ironclaw’s “gift” is uncovered quite literally.

The dead troll is one of the semiadults. Brown blood is spattered over their face and the rigor of death makes it take a minute for her to even recognize them. Cadet Plenno, brown blood caste, engineer, female equivalent, eleven and a half sweeps (which they still have not entirely figured out the translation for but it seems to equate to twenty-something. Adult but not by much and not by Troll social standards). Whatever killed her had not been painless.

Ironclaw and Yui are talking and Theodora _should_ be paying attention, following their mouths until Yui remembers to include her in the conversation sign wise, but she’s a little distracted by the dead body. She’s not unnerved by it - hers is an occupation where being so would be a detriment - but it is strange to see a dead face she recognizes. Cadet Plenno had submitted herself to examination before, a simple surface one. She’d been quiet and obedient, easy to work with. And now she’s dead.

Theodora draws back the cover a bit more. The cause of death is exceedingly obvious. It won’t impede her too much during autopsy to get a better understanding of the internal organ makeup of Trolls but she’s going to have to repair a few things for better picture reference-

Movement at the edge of her vision and Theodora looks up. Yui’s faintly green but she’s signing so Theodora pays it no mind.

- _Murder_ \- is the first thing from her hands and Theodora snorts because _obviously_. They apparently have full reign of the body but Theodora gets more out of Yui’s mouth movements than her hands because they are shaking too hard. Yui’s used to working on animals, not something that was sentient when alive. Theodora feels for her, she really does.

- _I’ve got it_ \- she assures her and Yui sags with relief, managing a perfect thank you.

There’s more, Theodora can sense the movements as Yui gets to talking to Ironclaw again, gesturing wildly. She’ll find out the whole story later. Right now, she’s got the rare opportunity to get an indepth look at an alien body and she is going to look at _everything_.

She gestures Henok over to help push the cart over to her lab where she can examine the body without upsetting Yui further, but pauses at the door to turn back. Henok catches Yui and a very confused Ironclaw’s attentions for her.

- _Funeral preparation?_ \- she asks.

When Yui translates it for Ironclaw, he seems even more confused. His fanged mouth is not as expressive as a human one and his jaws move just slightly wrong to muck up familiar words, but she manages to read it well enough.

“We do not,” he says. “We burn them. There is room on ship not.”

It makes a sad kind of sense for a species that spends so little time raising their young and so much of it conquering the universe, she supposes. Looking down at Cadet Plenno’s still face, Theodora decides she’ll see her off herself. It’s the least she can do for all the things they’re going to learn.


	104. Chapter 104

**ANON asks: In the So It Goes universe, what would happen if Jermaine, or anyone really, figured out that when the trolls are talking about the lifespans they really do mean hundreds of years? And yeah, when they talk about the empress, they really do mean millennia?**

**\----**

“That has to be a translation error,” Jermaine says after nearly two minutes of silence, staring at the report.

“It’s not. We verified it with the Egbert children. That’s the equivalent in human years.”

Jermaine’s brows are furrowed so tight Yui would not be surprised if he gave himself a headache. She kind of has a headache. Between the dead troll, which she is still shuddering about, and the new age information, she has had a rough week for shocks.

When Mohamed cheerfully brought by the sweep to year exchange, provided through a joint effort of Dave and Karkat, she hadn’t really considered what that _meant_. Now she knows that Ironclaw, in the middle of the caste hierarchy, is over _a hundred years old_ and that it’s not entirely weird for his blood caste to still be healthy enough for work then. Not uncommon for Softouch’s caste to be twice or three times that. Trolls don’t often die of old age but these numbers are… unnerving.

They have a reckoning of the castes in social order and there’s a vague sort of progression in expected lifetime. All except the last caste, of whom there are only two known individuals.

Jermaine’s eyes meet hers when he gets to the end of the report. “No upward limit?”

“Every Troll I’ve spoken to has said she is has been in power for at least a thousand years, well outstripping even the violets in lifespan,” Yui says even though she still hasn’t quite wrapped her brain around it. “Even Ironclaw is sure that it’s been the same person the entire time.”

He looks back down at the report. Yui’s sure he’s thinking about Feferi (7.5 sweeps, a little over 16 years) and the Trolls’ insistence that she face the Empress in some kind of ritualized bid for power. Ironclaw seems to think it’s healthy for the Empress to be confronted every generation but has absolutely no confidence that Feferi will actually _win_. The children are all just as sure that it isn’t actually much of a problem because the Empress likes them.

It’s unimaginable outside of fiction, a sentient being that old. Jermaine seems to share that sentiment because he murmurs quietly, “Have your team sit on this.”

“What?”

“I’d like to keep paranoia to a minimum and this is definitely enough to unsettle far more people than I’m comfortable with at this stage of the talks.”

Yui takes back the report and nods, understanding. She’ll have to disclose it with the final formal reports but there’s no reason to make the information public before then. In the meantime, she’s going to try very, very hard not to think about Cadet Drasen, who’s been submitting herself for various experiments and very helpful in learning more about the Trolls in general, and the fact that she’s likely half way through her lifespan.


	105. Chapter 105

**dreamwaffles asks:For So It Goes, what if Nepeta started explaining romance to the humans? Is it any more coherent/pleasant than Karkat's explanation?**

**\---**

The visual demonstration is probably not required. Mason still appreciates it because even though he has read the Romance Brief, it’s still super weird.

He squints at the little color symbols sitting between Jermaine and Ironclaw’s little cartoon headshots.

“Vacillation,” Nepeta explains cheerfully, grinning so big he can see approximately ten billion too many teeth.

“Vaci-what?”

“Oooohhhh, dear sugargrub,” Aurous coos far too smugly. The viewscape changes immediately and he realizes this is the beginning of some kind of film which, despite being made with super weird organic technology, looks like the tip off point of a normal chick flick.

“Oh!” Nepeta says as she straightens up excitedly. “Is this-”

“Don’t ruin it for me,” Aurous snickers out.

Mason has a bad feeling about this. It’s entirely warranted.


	106. Chapter 106

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No prompt other than random conversations in the writer group and also drinking speculations on tumblr. XD

“Mason just smashed another can on his forehead,” Sarah says as she steps out of the Troll ship and into the section of tables set up outside of it. The entire courtyard is full of people, talking and drinking and even a few dancing in a louder corner she’s thankfully pretty far from. “I think that’s ten.”

“He’s going to give himself a concussion,” Jermaine mutters into his own glass and Ironclaw chuckles next to him, all engine rumbling and soft clicking. Very unlike the Helmsman, who’s explosions of crackling, unnerving noise keeps getting accidentally routed to the outdoor speakers (or possibly not accidentally at all.) Ironclaw’s noise is odd, of course, but not unpleasant.

“This behavior surprises you not,” Ironclaw says pleasantly, his face more open than it has been through the entire negotiation. It’s nice to see his bare enjoyment of the party, that he’s relaxed to a point of showing it openly. “This is common, yes?”

“In twenty-something male Americans? Sadly yes,” Sarah says as she shakes her head and goes off to where Mohamed is sobbing against Adanna’s shoulder while gesturing wildly with one hand not wrapped around her. Jermaine can’t hear what he’s saying but Adanna doesn’t seem distressed. She pats his back and the look on her face is fond and amused. There’s a semiadult sitting with them, Cadet Raftin, looking a little embarrassed at the friendly display before him.

“There are similar customs on Alternia,” Ironclaw muses, turning his cup in his hands. Trolls, as it turns out, are susceptible to alcohol. It can be dangerous in lower quantities than in humans, drying them out and causing alcohol poisoning quite a bit more quickly, so Ironclaw has had very little and set a strict limit for his crew that the bartenders have been keeping tabs on religiously. No one wants another dead Troll. The first one was terrifying enough.

After a glass of wine he’d had with Jermaine earlier, Ironclaw had switched to fruit juices and the most recent cup was some kind of carbonated soda he seems quite amused by. Little as Ironclaw’s had, his cheeks have roughed and his eyes are brighter, not quite glowing but seeming to be just barely not. He sits in a relaxed sprawl, chair tipped on the back legs as he surveys the party.

“Youthful indulgence seems universal,” Jermaine says as he settles back in his chair, letting his back curve into it. He’s had enough to be pleasantly warm inside and that’s how he likes it.

As the night goes on, Ironclaw drinks more soda and Jermaine notices him growing even more relaxed and open. He’s not sure if it’s just the general joy of the celebration (even Mohamed only cries a couple times and is mostly laughing with his fellows) or something else, at least until he starts to realize just how laid back Ironclaw has gotten with his random thoughts. Jermaine has a few moments of amusement that the more enthusiastic dancing on the part of the semiadults is probably less the alcohol and more the endless soda they’ve been getting. That will be something nice for Yui’s team to study and maybe he should consider telling the bartenders to switch the semiadults to juice or water-

Jermaine blinks as one thick, sturdy hand comes to rest on his wrist as Ironclaw leans in closer to him.

“Your wife,” a word Ironclaw says with weight and gravitas, “is good to you, yes?”

“Of course,” Jermaine says, baffled.

“This is good.” Like he approves and would not have stood for anything less. “You are steady. Grounded.”

“She’s my North.” A bit of poetry Léa would likely be amused by, but absolutely true. Maybe he should text it to her. On second thought, he likely should not text anyone after he’s been drinking.

The phrase wouldn’t be hard to explain but Ironclaw just nods, accepting it. “She is a good human moirail, yes.”

Cadet Hoyali, who has the best grasp of English beyond Ironclaw himself and is standing strict, sober guard nearby for the entire party, suddenly turns and looks at them. Her face is difficult to parse, blue eyes a little wider and mouth pinched at one side, but Jermaine’s fairly sure there is a growing horror there. He doesn’t understand why but chalks it up to some Troll social rule they haven’t tripped over yet. There have been plenty of those.

“I suppose that would be a good parallel,” Jermaine says thoughtfully. He’s still a little hazy on the delineation between Troll relationships but from what he can remember right now, in the warm haze of drink, that seems to match up well enough. Léa is his North, his guiding star, the one that keeps his heart safe and loved. He’d be a disaster without her.

Ironclaw is a lot closer now. Jermaine hadn’t noticed him moving and he doesn’t mind close quarters but the intent look on Ironclaw’s face is different now. He’s not entirely sure how, it just… is. His thumb rubs lightly on Jermaine’s wrist, right over his pulse, and it is nice but there’s an odd electric charge to the air now. He… hadn’t observed the Trolls much for random physical contact.

“I have been studying human romantic works,” Ironclaw says in a manner that would be absent if he weren’t so close. Maybe worrying, actually.

“Yes?” Jermaine prompts after a few seconds, slowly as he tries to figure out just where Ironclaw is going with this.

“Yes. They are… different.”

“As I would assume.”

“But not difficult to understand.” Ironclaw’s lips quirk a bit as his eyes grow more lazy. “A good time, I think, we would have. In my quarters, yes? I have learned to make many human meals.”

Jermaine blinks. Is he- “Are you asking me to dinner?”

“Not well,” Ironclaw admits, still smiling (Jermaine has to admit it’s a nice smile).

“I…” He has no idea what to think.

“Are you a magician?” Jermaine’s thoughts stall as he stares at Ironclaw’s face and dear lord, who taught him to look innocent? “Because I look at you and everyone disappears.”

Jermaine has no idea how to handle this at all. The English is perfect and not halting in the least, which means it’s by rote. But why on Earth would anyone teach Ironclaw to say-

“Do you know what my shirt is made of?”

“No-”

“Boyfriend material.”

Jermaine covers his face in his hands. He doesn’t know what he did to deserve this. The fact that Hoyali makes a choking noise by them is little comfort.

“I’m not a photographer but I can picture you and me together.”

Thank everything holy that Sarah is not anywhere near him and if he finds out she had a hand in this, he will have stern words for her. Even if in the little fluttery parts of his chest, he’s rather flattered at the attention.

“Ironclaw-”

“I have another,” Ironclaw murmurs and he’s laughing at him, he has to be, that is a rumble undertone Jermaine knows well now. “I don’t have a library card but do you mind me checking you out?”

Jermaine looks at him and Ironclaw is still giving him that innocent expression. He’s not sure he likes intoxicated Ironclaw.

“My study went well, yes?” the bastard says.

“I don’t know who told you those lines but they were sorely mistaken in the uses,” Jermaine says very carefully. His face feels hot. It’s uncomfortable and absolutely inappropriate.

“My Helmsman assisted,” Ironclaw explains and that makes a lot of sense. His smile dims from the carefree brilliance to something a little more genuine. “I would enjoy sharing a meal in private with you. If you are agreeable.”

There is little in his life that ever readied Jermaine for getting hit on by an alien ambassador, for whom he has incredible respect and no wish to insult. He’s not entirely sure it’s the drink that’s brought any of this on but maybe the atmosphere or the relative intimacy of their seating arrangement or… Something.

“Ironclaw…”

“Think on it,” Ironclaw urges, giving his wrist a squeeze before he releases it.

Before Jermaine can say anything more, there’s a sudden cheerful roar as Mason runs out of the Troll ship at full tilt. His shirt is gone, his hair sticks up in wild licks, and he goes headlong into the group of dancing semiadults to tackle Cadet Drasen to the ground. Jermaine starts to rise as the two roll around but the other semiadults don’t seem to be worried and he catches sight of both their faces, neither showing anger or anything but an intense, carefree joy. He sits back down.

“I think we’re going to have to cut Mason off,” he says finally and then Yui comes careening in to join the wrestle pile along with another semiadult and he amends, “Maybe all of them.”

“It is late,” Ironclaw agrees and then gestures to Hoyali. She sighs a little but heads over to start extracting her crew from what appears to be the start of a fight club. Cadet Talvar gets thrown over her shoulder but the others listen well enough to her. Mason doesn’t but Hoyali has no compulsions over using her superior strength and size to throw him over her other shoulder as she continues directing the semiadults. He ends up shocked enough not to fight her, looking at Talvar as if to commiserate.

“The celebration seems to be going well,” Jermaine can at least say and Ironclaw hums agreement. “Successful presentation and treaty agreements deserve at least this much. Good relations between human and Troll alike.”

“We two could have better relations,” Ironclaw says so smoothly that Jermaine doesn’t even catch the implication until half a minute later.

This is going to be very difficult to explain tomorrow when all parties are sober. Jermaine finishes his drink all at once to give himself strength.


	107. Chapter 107

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shoot, sorry guys. I forgot to post this one. No prompt, just whim.

The first time they kiss, Mason has no idea what to even think about it. Aurous’ mouth is soft and a touch cooler than his own, and it goes absolutely no where but that seems to be the _point_. And the weirdest thing is that the idea of going further actually sets his teeth off. She coos at the pressure, at his hands cupping her face and brushing along the smooth not-quite-skin of it.

They’d been talking for hours about absolutely nothing and he’s not sure when he started running his fingers through her hair like he finds himself doing so often, but her words level off into soft little noises he’s come to understand and recognize.

She’s gone deep into the little trance that happens sometimes when he gets it just right, touches the spots that send her into paradise. It makes his heart clench in his chest, the trust she’s putting in him. When she’s awake, she could flay him alive in two seconds if she so choose to. Like this? Like this, it will take her too long to come out of it to defend herself. For all that she’s an actual goddamn battleship, she lets him gentle her to a kitten and he can’t understand _why_.

And suddenly he can’t _not_ kiss her. The sound she makes is not quite a chirp, not quite a purr. It rumbles in her chest and he can feel it in his hands. He draws back and her eyes are half lidded with contentment and trust and he kisses her again. He pets down the length of her face from temple to chin and she shivers with a low, pleased sound, enough that he figures this is an okay thing for him to do. Within the rules of their weird alien not-mating rituals. And he likes it, that he can. He brushes little kisses over her cheeks, her forehead, her closed eyes, just _because_ he can.

He almost wishes he was wired in a way where she could do it to him or that she could try to do something close, but although Ironclaw had actually very willingly set one of his tech minded cadets to work with the human team on possible ways to extract her from the installation without grounding the ship so far from home, maybe give her the option to come and go, they weren’t there yet.

“Pale for you,” she whispers after he’s kissed her mouth again and it shouldn’t affect him the way it does.

“Yeah.” His voice is rough and quiet and he barely recognizes it. “Yeah, I… pale for you.”

She wouldn’t understand if he told her he loved her, but he knows these words mean the same thing.


	108. Chapter 108

**Bellgram asked: Could we see some interaction between Jade and Jake? Like what they feel like as siblings living with Mr. Egbert or grandpa/granddaughter?**

**\----**

It’s still weird, seeing so many people all in one place. Jake knows that some of the others have it a _lot_ worse but he still can’t help that he’s really not a fan of this “mall” rot.

The Mall is big and loud and there are so many people here on a Saturday afternoon. Dirk’d already noped out of the whole business the moment he finished looking up what a mall was and went to hide on the roof but Jake was brave enough to soldier on! He… kind of regrets that now. The Mall is very interesting to look at and observe but people keep bumping into him and there is so much happening all at once and-

He jumps as a hand curls around his own, jerking his head over to look, and Jade just smiles back. It has a little bit of an edge to it but she just starts swinging their clasped hands and looking forward again.

“Me, too,” she says softly, barely heard over the hullabaloo. It settles something in him. They hold hands for most of the trip.


	109. Chapter 109

**zai_make_it_awesome asked: are the prompts still up ? if so, would it be too much of a stretch to ask for strider bros to get into an irony war with each other ?**

**\----**

“Are you going to tell him you legitimately like those orange tarts Jane made?” Rose asks curiously as she watches Dave juice his tenth orange and dump the results into the pitcher. She’s not sure he knows that he’s supposed to be scooping out seeds.

“I do that and he _wins_. Gotta keep up my cred, Lalonde.”

“Which is why you’re not going to crack even though there are six bottles of apple juice in the fridge, a bushel of apples sitting in the pantry, ten boxes of apple cinnamon oatmeal in the cabinets, and a family size tub of apple sauce resting on the counter.”

Dave drops the empty orange half and picks up another one, his lips quirking to one side. “Okay. I admit, he’s one up on me there.”

“And your lovingly crafted gift of freshly squeezed orange juice?” Yes, Dave definitely didn’t realize the seeds would be a problem. She should probably tell him. “I suppose that will add up nicely to the poster print you somehow acquired of the Minute Maid background to put on the wall.”

“That was a stroke of genius and you know it. I’m just supporting my bro’s passions, even if apples are the superior fruit.”


	110. Chapter 110

**anon asked: Dude I just discovered this series and read it all in one go it’s so good**

**Would you please write kanaya explaining about the matriorb and all those weird troll reproduction stuff? And their reactions? Maybe trolls reacting weirdly to buckets and the humans being confused lol**

**\----**

“An… orb,” Henok repeated with a certain amount of uncertainty but the Troll didn’t seem to be joking with him. The diagram she’d drawn out wasn’t polished or particularly detailed but the object itself seemed contrived.

“Oh, yes. This is of greatest importance.”

“To hatch a new Mother Grub.” At least that was staying close in line to Yui’s last interview and subsequent restructuring of their current theories.

“It is not such a time limited goal now.”

Henok lifted his gaze to her, suspicious, but he already knew it wouldn’t be explained. It had something to do with the overall mystery of the children, what they’d experienced and how they’d even gotten the chance… No, she wouldn’t explain it.

“Very well. Please elaborate on these… jade blood caretakers.”


	111. Chapter 111

**lamantesDaemonium asked: Okay, so, like, I just read this entire thing today. The series I mean. And while I would pay actual cold hard cash money dollars for a sequel (and frankly you deserve some cash money dollars for everything you’ve written so far, lbr), I find myself wondering if we could get some info on either Rose and Kanaya’s irl reunion (like, were they being snarky broad while Karkat and Dave sucked face? Did they hang out with everyone because Karkat was too busy sucking face to update people on all the trolls? Were they also secreted away sucking lots of face?) or Roxy and Calli’s reunion (because I am all about the ladyships and I fuckjng love those two and I want everyone to just be happy). Thank you so much for writing all of this!**

**\----**

There’s general chaos and confusion, yelling from friend and stranger alike, and two strange adult Trolls that she’s not quite decided how to feel about, but in the center of it all is a pair of horns she knows very well.

Rose side steps the ridiculous public display Karkat and Dave are making because Kanaya is so close after months of being apart. She sees the moment Kanaya notices her, watches her expression go from slightly worried to something so much warmer that Rose can’t help sharing in it.

“This is a strange place for such a lovely lady to be found,” Rose says, lips curling up into a smile.

“I could say the same,” Kanaya returns and then reaches for her hand. Rose lets her have it, lets Kanaya pull her in gratefully because all Rose has been thinking about is this moment, this relief. She’s pressed against the familiar curves of Kanaya’s body, close enough she could kiss if she wanted, but…

Rose slides a hand to the small of Kanaya’s back and then leans suddenly into her space, tipping her back into the most graceful dip anyone had ever seen ever. Kanaya’s laughing, free and happy, and Rose simply cannot be held accountable for the way she _has_ to kiss her now.

At least they’re a lot more graceful than the boys. 


	112. Chapter 112

**verifiedSanctuary says: If you’re still open to prompts, can we get an outsiders (the non players except for dad) look on the powers the kids seem to posses? That ought to be funny :3**

**\----**

“Well, that’s a thing,” Sarah says vaguely. Adanna thinks she sounds awed.

She looks at the scorch mark on the brick and then pans back over to the Troll that made it. He adjusts his oddly colored sunglasses and has the audacity to look fairly satisfied with his effort.

“Do you… have centipedes on your planet?” she hazards cautiously because _laser beams had come out of his face._

“Is that what they’re called? That’s almost stupid enough to work,” Sollux says thoughtfully like he hadn’t just blasted a harmless bug into dust like it was going to suddenly turn giant and spit acid. He shrugs a bit and then wanders off while they just stood back.

“Did Yui warn us that one of them could shoot laser beams?” Sarah asks after a few seconds, giving the scorch mark a concerned glance. “She’s the one gathering all that, isn’t she?”

Adanna shrugs. “I think so?”

“Huh.” Sarah folds her arms over her chest and then looks back to Mohamed, who's just been staring with his mouth hanging open. “Hey, you okay?”

He blinks at her owlishly. “X-men. _They’re X-men_.”

“Oh lord, not this again.” Sarah gives a dismissive wave, washing her hands of it as she heads back into the building.


	113. Chapter 113

**Done for a couples meme:**

**Anon x3: jermaine and ironclaw**

**\----**

“I understand and agree to your terms,” Ironclaw says, giving a grave nod.

“Lovely.” Léa smiles with absolute serenity. “I’m so glad.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Jermaine mutters crossly but Léa just pats his shoulder.

“Come on, dear. Think of the fantastic first-person view you can get of their customs,” she soothes and Jermaine glances heavenward. “And admit it. You wanted to. You just needed permission first.”

“…Perhaps.”

Léa gives a quiet laugh at his forlorn tone as Ironclaw’s lips quirk with amusement. He reaches over and takes Jermaine’s hand in his, ever so gently and carefully as if Jermaine were some fragile statue. It makes his chest do a strange fluttery thing he has no idea what to think of. Léa gives him another pat and then steps away.

“Have a wonderful evening, boys,” she says airily as she leaves Jermaine like the traitor she is.

“I just want you to know,” Jermaine says, “that this is in the interests of _science_ -”

The words go caught in his throat when Ironclaw lifts his hand up to his strange, dry lips. Jermaine blinks and then has no idea what to think of the way Ironclaw’s fingertip rubs against the soft skin over his pulse.

“Yes,” the troll says agreeably. “Of course.”

“…Right.”


	114. Chapter 114

**sariau asks: So I may or may not have just binged all of the stuff in So It Goes on Ao3, and I was kinda wondering, is Egbert’s house soundproof? That poor old lady that was their neighbor in the first story. Was she just asleep? Watching television really loud to compensate for bad hearing? I just want to know her side of things when screaming and shouting happened when Dave starts messing with (most) everyone’s ages.**

**\----**

Josephine Lopez has lived alone for a very long time now. She doesn’t mind this because people are exhausting and she has her stories to keep her company, as well as this new Roku thing one of her great-grandchildren set up for her last Christmas. She only ever uses the Netflix part because she can find the movies she remembers from time ago, and also because she’s afraid she might not get back to it if she tried the rest. The perfect afternoon is one she can spend in her chair, petting Lambchop and watching Nancy guide Katie through the unfolding of secrets behind Brad’s death.

The TV is loud enough that Josephine doesn’t notice anything at first, not until Lambchop lifts his head and twitches an ear towards the window. He gets up with a big production that startles her out of the light snooze she’d been falling into and then runs over to jump onto the sill with a flick of his tail. Josephine figures there’s probably a bird or something but she’s bored enough to wrestle the afghan on her lap and tug her walker around in front of the chair.

Grumbling, she makes her way to the window where Lambchop peers out with single minded focus that isn’t _quite_ hunting focus but still very interested. Josephine peers out towards the neighbors’ house and tries to figure out what was so interesting. After a few minutes, she looks down at Lambchop and humphs.

“All that for nothing,” she tells him sternly but Lambchop just keeps staring steadily out. She figures he can probably hear something that’s just too quiet for her (not a hard feat, considering how little she wears her hearing aids these days) and goes on back to her chair.

“Let me know if a firetruck comes by,” she says. “Might as well let this old heart get a kick out of _something_.”

That reminds her, though. She’d been planning on watching that new vampire movie. She did rather love a good vampire hunting. What was it… Dusk? Before Night? _Twilight_. That sounded promising…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working on cleaning out my backlog of prompts XD


	115. Chapter 115

**rocky-3 asks: As part of negotiations the UN likely did presentations about culture, religion, etc to the trolls, not to mention their own exploration. So how does Aradia react when she finds out what Catholicism is really like because you know Dave or Rose would hype it up as 'an ancient formerly secret cult that chants in a dead language as they ritually eat the flesh and blood of their god. Also their holy symbol is a method of execution, preferably with the body still on it.'  
**

**\----**

“So they don’t drink blood of their god preserved for a thousand years,” Aradia asks cautiously because everything else she thought she knew has been wrong, apparently. All she’d wanted was to go watch one of the rituals and get a look at their symbol in person.

“Good heavens, no!” Sarah looks faintly horrified. “Who told you that?”

Aradia doesn’t answer because she’s already thinking about how to get Rose back for this. A slow smile crosses her face. Oh, she is going get Rose good.


	116. Chapter 116

**ANON asks: I REALLY want to know how that conversation between jermaine and lea went XD**

**\----**

“He _hit_ _on you?_ ” Léa asks, blinking as her hungover husband paces in front of the hotel bed. 

“Yes and I’ve no idea how to handle it,” Jermaine mutters, turning swiftly on his heel to make another round even as it makes his face a little green again. “I obviously can’t entertain the notion but insulting him could jeopardize things-”

“Why can’t you?”

Jermaine stops abruptly and stares at her wide eyed but Léa just continues to sit patiently with her legs crossed under her and her hands on her lap. 

“Are you honestly-?!” He cuts himself off and then looks at the ceiling. “This is not a _story_. There are real consequences to a falling out and- And besides which, _I am dedicated to you_.”

Léa smiles a little because she’s never been in doubt of that. Not after he’d written off his entire family and lost his inheritance to marry her. That does remind her that she has a new batch of photos of the children to send to his mother. She’d been fairly reasonable over Christmas and Léa likes to reward good behavior.

“Calm down,” she murmurs as she gets up and goes to cradle his face in her hands. “It’s all right. I know you love me better than anything else.”

Jermaine’s eyes slot off with the faint embarrassment of his feelings but Léa just draws him down so she can kiss him because she can’t _not_ kiss him when he’s like this.

“You wouldn’t be so torn up if it wasn’t something you were considering, though,” she says kindly and before Jermaine can start into his denials, she continues, “It’s all right, dearest. Ironclaw seems like a lovely person.”

“I don’t- _Léa_ , I am not about to leave you for-”

“I know.” She smiles and brushes her thumbs over his cheeks. “I know you never would.”

Jermaine seems at a loss, staring at her with confusion and conflict. Léa just keeps hold of him to comfort through her touch the way she always has.

“Ironclaw is not bad to look at,” she says idly and that is when the flush starts at the apples of Jermaine’s cheeks. Her smile widens. “He’s getting a lot better with English, isn’t he?”

“I… yes.”

“One date might be nice.”

Jermaine searches her face like he’s looking for falsehood. He always has and Léa understands why since she knows his parents and the old social circle fairly well now, but it still saddens her that he can’t trust all the way that things will ever go as he might want them to.

“You think I should take up his offer,” he says finally.

“I think it wouldn’t hurt anything since you are not the only head of things pertaining to the Trolls anymore,” she replies, sweet and soft. “Whether as friends or something more. There are a lot of romantic configurations these days.”

Jermaine’s lips form a solid, unhappy line for a bit and it just brings a giggle out of her as she smooths some of his hair back.

“I _do_ want to talk to him first.” She makes sure he’s looking her in the eye before continuing. “He needs to know how very silly you can be.”

Jermaine rolls his eyes but the tension is starting to fade. Léa doesn’t know exactly _what_ will come out of this but she’s never seen her husband even entertain the idea of getting close to anyone other than her and she is not about to squash that. She might change her mind later but Léa has always been of the mind that love is not diminished when shared with others, only strengthened.

“Now go get cleaned up, dear. You smell like a barn.” She playfully pushes him towards the bathroom and then starts figuring out what all she might need to ask Ironclaw to be sure of his intentions towards her husband.

This might actually be very fun.


	117. Chapter 117

Jermaine had no idea why but the Troll Empress asks for him specifically in her first message to the planet when her enormous ship shows up in the solar system. He still doesn’t know, even now as he stares her down over the video screen. The first thing he’d noticed is the _hair_. The second is her pink glowing eyes boring into him and the huge, sharp teeth as she speaks. The third…

“Was that a pun?” he asks with disbelief.

“Don’t tell me they ain’t shown in your end of the tunaverse,” she drawls out. “I trout you were an advanced species.”

Jermaine covers his eyes with one hand for a moment and then wonders to himself what he actually expected. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a random one XD I still have some asks to clear out eventually but this came of left field.


	118. Chapter 118

**Prompt: Dave getting interrogated for whether or not the Trolls are a threat. Dave would probably not even say anything and just do head and hand gestures.**

**\---**

(set right before the Antecedent lands)

“And what about those horns you told us about, those a weapon?” Mason asks casually as he flips to a new page in his notebook. He’s been writing down random observations and adding items to his grocery list. He’s just that kind of multitasking badass like that.

“You ever seen a bullfight?” Dave says with no sign of apprehension that Mason gets a flash of himself. “Nah, more like goats maybe. Kids be running at each other to see who can cause a concussion faster. Tap me out, Blue. I’ve reached my breaking point. You’re gonna have to look after the kids for me now.”

Mason lifts a brow and considers how much of that is probably bullshit. “You met them in person, right?”

“If by met you mean-”

“ _Nope._ ” The way Dave postures like a proud chicken just has Mason rolling his eyes. “They do that to you?”

“Nah. My badass aura is a dominance show enough to exempt me from that.”

Mason hums a little and considers the Trolls as a whole. He wonders how many of them he could take. Probably the little ones just fine but Softouch would fuck his shit up like no one’s business. He knows that just from the way her hissed words sink into his bones even across the comm.

“So. Real talk, but that whole… Charles Manson vibe that one chick gives-”

Dave’s back stiffens. It’s small, barely noticeable, but Mason’s always been good at picking up that sort of thing. His lips purse tight a moment before he forces himself to ask.

“Is that worse in person?”

Dave shrugs a shoulder. That is a yes if Mason ever saw one. Weeeeelp. Time to make sure his clips are full and his knives sharp.


	119. Chapter 119

**ANON: What if one of the humans got told about the game?**

**ANON: When will the humans find out more about the Game and what these children went through?**

**ANON: Will the humans ever know about why these kids have superpowers? Will they ever be told the story of Sburb/Sgrub?**

**ANON: if you are still doing for chapter prompts for So It Goes: First Contact, how about a chapter where the non-game humans find out about Sburb**

**\---**

“…This was a _game?_ ”

“Oh yeah. The whole world got destroyed!”

Yui blinks a little. The world… got destroyed. “And you all got powers?”

“Yeah, but that was way later. Had to get up the echeladder a while before I could do the cool stuff.” Considering that Jade has been juggling a couple blocks without touching them, Yui almost doesn’t want to know what “the cool stuff” might be because she is pretty sure this is not it.

“Besides, first we had to get through all the world quests and reach godtier so we could go defeat the king piece but that got sidetracked by a lot!” Jade’s grin gets a little brittle there. Yui almost asks but then she goes on. “First we had to scratch the session and merge with the Trolls’ session and then things got _really_ complicated.”

“I can… only imagine,” Yui says weakly. “Is that when the dog-”

“Bec.”

“Yes, is that when Bec merged with… what was his name?”

“Noir. And kind of? But time was really weird in there. Dave would know more.”

Dave, the one with some kind of time powers. Yui’s head is reeling a bit.

“Can I give you an MRI?” she finds herself asking abruptly and Jade peers at her with curious surprise. “Just- If what you say is true and physical changes happened to you, I can’t _imagine_ what your brain might look like now!”

Jade sits up more as her eyes widen. “ _I didn’t even think about that!”_

_“_ Then you’ll-”

“ _YES!”_

When Henok gets there a couple hours later, he gives the two of them flitting over different views of the brain scans a long look before deciding to go do something else for a while. 


	120. Chapter 120

**ANON: I seriously hope soft touch and Dave get into a serious argument over apple juice that sounds amazing**

**\----**

The way Softouch hisses _usually_ makes food back down and let her enjoy the stench of their fear like a fine bouquet. The Dave meat just stares back at her through his crude ocular protection with only the barest hint of it leaking from him.

“You do _not_ diss the _juice_ ,” he insists and she almost imagines a nice solid growl under the words, but so far she has not found a single human who can give a really good threat display.

“It’s a motherfucking _travesty_ and insult to motherfucking nature,” she says and takes extra care to show as many of her teeth as possible when she snarls at her. It makes the Mason meat stink more when she does but Dave keeps staring at her infuriatingly.

“Guess your batshit eating habits killed your taste buds,” he drawls out, chin lifting like he’s looking _down_ at her and oh. _Oh_. She is going to savor sucking the marrow from his bones, mark her motherfucking words. _Just wait_.


	121. Chapter 121

**jades-harley asked:Oh oh! I just read the thing about Kankri, and I'm super curious now! Can we get more from his pov?**

**thefriendlymushroom asked: I don’t know why this has been bugging me lately (and I can’t remember if I’ve asked this yet, I remember thinking about it but I don’t know if I actually did it so sorry if this is repeated) but how is Kankri doing in SIG? **

\---

“-And it is _absolutely_ unacceptable for these young trolls to grow up alone without governmental attention. Not that none of them _can_ thrive in such an environment-”

Kanrki has been going on for half an hour now and it was funny at first, especially the way her court just gets more and more flabbergasted with every word he says, but Meenah’s tolerance for his bullshit has dwindled pathetically far in her new bangin’ bod.

“Yeah, so, you want to take over fixing that or somefin?” she asks when he pauses to breathe.

Kankri stops, staring at her, and of all of them, his new body is probably the most weirdly different than what he had before. Still short but way bigger, muscles he didn’t earn and would probably lose in the next perigee. Stocky, sturdy, made to hold his own. Even the way he’s not wearing that show of his blood color is weird. She hated the sweater but it was so intrinsically him that it’s weird to see him without.

“Uh.” He blinks. “Yes?”

“Great, ‘cause I want fuckall to do with it.” The bristling is the same though and Meenah smirks as she waves him off. “Go on. If you need anything, let minnow.”

Kankri shifts his weight from one foot to the other a couple times and then stands as tall as he can (it’s pathetically adorable, she’s willing to admit that). “I will! Just wait until you see my vision for a new, gentler, _better_ Befor- Alternia.”

There are a few whispers at the slip up but Meenah ignores them. She finds they respond better to her if they think she doesn’t give a shit and will kill them in an instant.

“So what’s next on the agenda?”

“Ah…” A squinty little blue lifts his hand and goes on with, “The eastern quadrant front?”

Ugh. Sometimes being a boss bitch _sucks_.


	122. Chapter 122

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sometimes i forget that Mohamed is the youngest of the UN crew by a LOT.

**ANON: hey, um i wondered about your sitg fic, if we would ever get to see more interaction between mohammed and tavros. not necessarily anything romantic or quadrant related, just them... bonding, i guess? i dunno, i've been curious about them since that chapter, you know which one i'm talking about,**

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“You’ve been spending a lot of time with that Troll kid,” Adana says out of nowhere one day on the way to the cafeteria.

“What?” Sometimes, Mohamed doesn’t know what she’s looking for when she says things like that. Makes him nervous, even more than he already is. It’s been a long morning. “He’s very nice.”

Her smile gets more gentle and she shifts to bump her shoulder to his. “It’s good to make friends with them. We can get a better understanding of them and social bonds are very important to peaceful relations.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Noe,” Mohamed shoots back with an odd flash of defensiveness, and then he remembered he’d meant to tease her about that anyway. “Has he asked you to dinner yet?”

Adanna snorts and shakes her head. “No, but I think it has more to do with the fact that he’s more of an airhead than Yui most of the time. He’s a very _pretty_ airhead.”

It would be a lie if Mohamed said he didn’t agree. Those thoughts fade as he spots Tavros at a relatively empty table and feels himself brighten.

“Go on,” Adana says with a laugh, shoving his shoulder before going on to the lunch line.

While still a little embarrassed by the undertone of her words, Mohamed still goes to settle across from Tavros with his lunch box. “Hello. How has your day been?”

Tavros doesn’t even startle at the abrupt entrance, just grins brightly and shoves a book across the table at him, some kind of encyclopedia of animals- _oh_.

“Look! It’s like my, um. My lusus, but bigger. Fairy bulls never got this big.”

Huh. Not exactly what he’d pictured from the description but it makes a lot more sense now. Mohamed tilts his head a little and then asks, “Did you find other ones that look like the other lusii…?”

Tavros turns to a section on sea life to point out crabs and they end up spending all of lunch chatting about the nature of lusii and their odd similarities to Earth fauna. By the time Adana comes by to politely remind Mohamed that they had a meeting to get to, he’s feeling _much_ better.


	123. Chapter 123

**ANON: Can we get a chapter with kanaya's pov when the rosemary reunion happens?? Thanks**

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Kanaya has no idea what to expect when they appear on Earth under harsh sunlight and the smell of living things. It’s a relief after perigees in space but there are so many bodies all in one place, so many she doesn’t _know,_ that send her warning sense wild.

And then she sees Rose and her world abruptly narrows. The sheer relief that floods her system is enough to steal her breath and then she’s grinning as Rose draws closer.

“This is a strange place for such a lovely lady to be found,” Rose says, lips curling up into a smile.

“I could say the same,” Kanaya says as she takes one familiar hand and then can’t stop herself from grabbing Rose up against her. The feel of her body warmth, the soothing scent of her surround Kanaya until she thinks she’ll never be free of it, and that is just what she wants.

When Rose leans into her, Kanaya lets herself rest back against one hand and just laughs at the ridiculousness because she is many times denser and heavier than Rose will ever be and yet it is Rose who decides she must sweep Kanaya off her feet. _She is so very red for this human girl_.

By the time Rose kisses her, Kanaya knows she’s probably going to need those kisses every day for the rest of her life and now she’s pretty sure she’ll be able to get them.


	124. Chapter 124

**ANON: Hello! Thank you for writing the So It Goes series on ao3; I really enjoyed it, including your alternate viewpoints anthology, and it's very good! I apologize if you've said something about her before and I missed it, but I would like to know what's going on with Damara in the SIG universe. If the note at the end is still up to date, it seems that you will at least read this prompt of mine. I hope she's okay. Also! I hope you are doing okay and have more happy days than otherwise. :)**

**rocky-3 said: Whats happening with the Dancestors? Rumor mill must be going crazy with the Empress somehow being friends with a revived??? Sufferer. Or what about Damara, how is she handling being the Handmaid of Death?**

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There is very little reason for her to be here. Damara hangs back from the others even as she lets them corral her along with them. There is still a tiny, stupid part of her that misses closer contact and friendship but she knows better than to seek it. She of anyone knows better.

The fact that her body is different matters little. It will service her just as well, though she will need to find other clothes. She wonders if trolls like those she grew up with exist on this new, harsher version of their world.

When Meenah approaches her, Damara waits because she doesn’t actually _care_ what any of them think or might want from her, but she is curious.

“So are you still eely mad at everyfin?” is not what Damara expected but she still nods. “Great. ‘Cuz there’s a bunch of little shrimp in my pond that think they’re hot shit whales and I ain’t into bothering with ‘em.”

Interesting. “あなたは彼らと何をしたいですか?”

Meenah winces. “I dunno why I always forget the accent.”

If Damara actually cared for anyone’s comfort, she might have tried harder. As no one _else_ cared for _hers_ , she doesn’t.

“Whatever you just said. You can talk dirty to ‘em and nobody’d know but maybe getting them to squirm will help get the warmongers the shell off my back.”

It _would_ be a nice, amusing stress relief.


	125. Chapter 125

**SiG:FC prompt: UN finding out the Dirk is Dave's brother. Dave's "dead" brother.**

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“…Dirk Strider is dead,” Jermaine repeats flatly as the report is handed to him.

“Looks to be an car accident. Found similar with the other blond one, Rose? Mom dead from some undisclosed illness around the same time.”

He’d been suspicious about them already, considering they’d already figured out that most of the children had been adopted around the same time, but seeing clear reasoning in print just makes it seem all the more strange.

“I’m going to have to have a talk with Mr. Egbert.” The man wasn’t unpleasant but his son John had a habit of showing up at random to where ever his father was and Jermaine just cannot stand the boy.

Still. Dirk Strider was a sixteen year old boy that had been adopted at the same time as Dave Strider and yet, a guardian with the same name dead right before. Lots of boys were given their father’s name but the elder Dirk Strider isn’t even listed as either of their fathers, but their older brother instead. Two sons with the same name?

When he brings it up, both boys look entirely unconcerned and Dirk says, “Oh, yeah. That was me, but I was an adult at the time.”

“You- what?”

“Yeah, things were crazy for a while but I Honey I Shrunk The Kids’d him back to normal,” Dave adds. “Then we had to deal with the legal stuff after we boogied to Casa del Egbert.”

Jermaine stares them down but neither so much as twitches, sticking to their ridiculous story.

He despises these children.


	126. Chapter 126

**ANON: are any of the trolls in SIG followers of the signless/sufferer?**

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Cadet Hoyali has spent her entire life building towards a mission like this. Something that mattered, something she could help shape to better their species. Maybe the exact reasons surrounding the trip were a little strange, but she doesn’t let that disturb her.

Seeing the small, mutant blooded troll with _that sign_ on him does. She follows him with her eyes only when he first boards with the rest of the juveniles, drawn immediately to the front of his sweater and the small, harmless curve of his horns. There are images she’s got burned into her mind and seeing anything that resembles them has her speechless. Thankfully, she isn’t expected to greet them past giving Captain Ironclaw a status report on the ship.

When the mutant speaks for the first time, it surprises Hoyali how _aggravating_ it is, and yet… And yet it still has her slipping one hand into her pocket to curl around the heretical, culling offense of a pendant she keeps on her at all times. Hoyali has never intended to be the rebelling type and likely will never actually step out of line, but there is a certain excitement to small rebellion like this.

She hangs on every word the mutant says, and then thinks herself silly for doing so. That doesn’t keep her from being caught anytime she hears him after that and she wonders idly if that was how the Sufferer had drawn in those that followed him before. She doesn’t intend to really rebel, but… Maybe she’ll listen a while if Karkat Vantas decides to preach.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to chat with me at my tumblr [shadowwood](http://shadowwood.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> Prompts are closed at the moment! Too busy with work and personal stuff, but I might open them up again later XD


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